


Breaking the Demon

by cisco_centric_4ever



Series: Breaking the demon [1]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Implied Mpreg, M/M, Mpreg, Post Mpreg, Rape/Non-con Elements
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-05
Updated: 2017-03-23
Packaged: 2018-09-22 05:33:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 8
Words: 39,215
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9585599
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cisco_centric_4ever/pseuds/cisco_centric_4ever
Summary: So this is a little AU I thought up one night when I read a story about Naruto being raped. I don't usually do these types of stories so yeah... anyways, on with the summary!Naruto is the holder of the fox demon Kuubi. All of his life people have hated him for this, and he knew it. However, that didn't stop Naruto from still trying to live his life anyway he could. But then one day something happens to Naruto at a very young age that changes him in some ways. but he's still Naruto deep down inside.P.S. This story gets a little dark in some places, there is mpreg, boyxboy, don't like? don't read. Part two will be posted soon.





	1. What makes me feel alive

**Ch. 1 Broken Child**

 

Naruto sat alone in his apartment, he was almost eight years old now, his birthday only being the following night he could hardly wait. The first thing he was going to do was go to Ichiraku's for a special birthday bowl of ramen. He didn't care what the second thing that he was going to do was, as long as he got his ramen, he would be happy. He could barely wait for tomorrow to come. Over the years, he's noticed that people in the village tend to be slightly, just slight, nicer to him on his special day. He was sure that it was because this day only came once a year, it was the equivalent of Christmas to him, so he cherished it deeply.

He smiled to himself as he turned to face his window, watching the sun come up was more like a resent ritual for him whenever his birthday came close. From when the sun rises to when it set, the day would be his to do with as he pleased. Only a few more minutes to go and his special day would finally begin.

* * *

* * *

* * *

 

 

Not to far away from Naruto's apartment building, there stood a man, this man was very import. Well not Hokage important, but he was still some-what important to a small group. You see, the thing that made him so important to this group was their twisted shared vision, and his promise to make it reality. Now as he stood there, staring up at Naruto's apartment window, he couldn't help but to smile at his up coming plans for the boy.

 

"Excuse my rudeness, my Lord, but the others are ready to start," stated a young man from the shadows.

 

The man that was still staring up at Naruto's window nodded his head and closed his eyes, "so then we shall start," he said as he turned to walk away.

* * *

* * *

* * *

 

 

Naruto quickly jumped out of bed and ran to the bathroom for a quick bath, when he was done  he got dressed and ran out the door, heading straight to Ichiraku's. He was so happy to be going there because the old man was always nice to him. He remembered the first time he had went to the little ramen shop.  

Flashback

_He had just been beaten up for the third time that day and he was starting to get very hungry. He had heard some other kids talking about a nice little ramen shop that makes the best ramen in town, he thought that sounded pretty good right then and there. To avoid anyone trying to beat him up again, for reasons yet to be known to him, he waited until he was sure that no one was insight before he dashed in to place a order. He was lucky that he had waited so long because when he entered the shop, the old man had just some very rude customers criticizes his wonderful ramen. The man was fuming about it because back in those days, people didn't really go out to eat at ramen shops that often unless it was the quickest, and cheapest, way to get something in their belly's._

_When the old man saw that it was Naruto that was making the order, he almost did like the rest of the villagers and scowled at him for ever thinking that it was okay to eat at his place. But then he thought back to his previously rude customers that bad mouthed his ramen and thought better of it._

 

_"So, the little demon boy has come to eat at my little shop, ne?" Said the shop owner with a smirk._

 

_Naruto looked down at the floor and held out the money he had to pay for the meal up to the man, "may I please have something to eat here? I promise I won't cause any trouble, I'm just hungry, please, Ojii-chan (grandpa)?" He asked in a small voice._

 

_The old man behind the counter was looking at the boy full on, from head to toe, he thought he would have seen the nine tailed fox demon, Kuubi, standing right in front of him, but no. The only thing could see was a sad and hungry little boy, he sighed, "what're you having little one?"_

 

_Naruto looked up at the man then, surprised that he wasn't called any other name that shouldn't even be in a child's dictionary at such a young age. He smiled brightly, "one bowl of ramen, please."_

 

_The man nodded and smiled back at the young blond, "sure thing, have a seat kid, it'll be ready in just a sec," he said before walking away from the counter._

 

_Naruto climbed onto one of the stools in front of him and waited for the old man to return with a large bowl. When the old man did return, the bowl he placed in front of Naruto's was about as big as his head, if not bigger. He took a whiff of the soup and smiled, it smelled delicious! "Thank you for the meal!" He said as he took some chopsticks to eat with, he slurped down the soup and noodles with pride, "delicious!" He exclaimed to the man behind the counter._

 

_The man smiled at the young boy, "glad you like it, kid, now eat up... if you're still hungry after, I'll give you another bowl on the house."_

 

_Naruto's eye's shot up to the old man, "on the house?  why would you do that?" He asked knowing that no one had ever done such a thing for him before now, "won't you get into trouble with your boss?"_

 

_The old man pointed his thumb to the wall behind him, "don't even worry about that kid, because I am the boss of this little resistant."_

 

_"Wow really, Ojii-chan? That's amazing! So you make this yummy ramen all by yourself all the time?" Asked Naruto in wonderment._

 

_"Well no, not really, I have a daughter that comes and helps me after school, right now she's in middle school so and is always drowned in homework right after. But she still comes by once she's down to give me a hand around the shop, she likes to help me out with the customers too, which is very handy during rush hour sometimes." The old man explained to Naruto as he at his food._

 

_"Sometimes?" Asked Naruto._

 

_The old man nodded, "yes, because sometimes when she's not drowning in homework assignments, she has club meetings and such to go to. Plus I give her time with her friends, so with that in mind she isn't always here to help, but when she is, I'm grateful."_

 

_Naruto finished his ramen and was drinking the rest of the soup as he listened, "hmm..." he said as he thought, then he snapped his fingers, "I've got it!"_

 

_"Hm? Got what, what are you getting at?" Asked the old man._

 

_Naruto smiled brightly at the man, "If you need help around the shop, I'd be happy to help out! I don't know how to cook or anything, but I can help clean up and stuff...uh, well that's if you want my help, Ojii-chan."_

 

 _The old man thought about this for a few seconds, '_ 'I knew that I could use the help, but this kids still very young, he doesn't look to be much older than four or five at the most.'  _He thought to himself,_ 'although...' _he looked around at his shop, '_ 'the floors could use a bit of sweeping, and the bowls in the sink needed to be washed.'  _He nodded his head once and turned back to Naruto then, "alright kid, you can help me out, I can't pay you big money cause you're still so young and all, But you're hired."_

 

_Naruto's eyes sparkled, "really!? I can really work here?" He asked, the man nodded and Naruto glowed with joy, "alright! Thanks a lot!"_

 

_"One thing though, before you get all worked up, you have to promise me to work hard every day, and do all that I say. No 'ifs', 'ands', or 'buts' about it, you got me kid?"_

 

_Naruto nodded his head vigorously, "mhmm, mhmm, don't worry, Ojii-chan, I promise to work really, really hard to help you sell a lot of ramen here. I won't let you down, you can count on me!"_

 

_The old man chuckled at the blonds enthusiasm, "ha ha, you're just a little ball of energy aren't you? Okay, it's settled, you'll start early tomorrow morning, set your clock so you can wake up on time so I can show you the ropes." He took Naruto's bowl away and replaced it with another one, a proud grin on his face as he did so, "but first I'll give you that extra bowl of ramen and this coupon to show my thanks, there aren't many kids your age running around trying to help a guy out like this, but I'm happy non-the-less."_

 

_Naruto gasped at his prize in front of him, "thanks a million, Ojii-chan," he said before digging in to the ramen._

Flashback end

 

Ever since that day, Naruto has been working at Ichiraku's Ramen shop full time with the old man and his daughter for the past four years now. Every time he showed up to work, the old man would ruffle his hair and say _"good to see ya, now lets start the day, shall we?"_ right before opening up the shop so they could start working. It always brought a smile to Naruto's face to see the old man, and working for the old man brought him joy as well. Not because he gets to be around ramen all day long (even though that was a heart stoppingly close secant), but because he made someone happy. Him being there, doing whatever little grunt work the old man asked of him, he did it just to see him smile. And it was a genuine smile at that, not when some of the kids in the village smiled at him before they played one of their mean jokes on him that's for sure. Not to mention that ever since he started to work at Ichiraku's, he hasn't gotten beaten up as he used to. Even though there were a few times when the shop closed late at night and some of the wondering drunks would bump into him and beat him down a bit before passing out on the side walk, he still continued to show up to work bright and early as always. He never got sick, so he never knew what a sick day was until the old man's daughter didn't show at all one day. He got a full explanation that day and he vowed never to get sick as long as he lived (or as long as he worked at Ichiraku's, but that doesn't matter right now), because he wanted to make the old man smile for however long he could.

Naruto skidded to a stop just a foot away from the back door of Ichiraku's, he looked at his watch, it wasn't nothing too fancy, just something he got from the old man himself on his sixth birthday. He kept on telling the guy that he didn't need anything for his birthday other than to work at the shop with him, which was all he really cared about really, but no, the old man insisted. He could see that Naruto seemed a bit hesitant to take the watch as a present, so he said _"think of it like a bonus for working so hard up until,"_ with that, the blond took the watch from the old man and looked at it. Again, it wasn't anything too fancy, or stylish at all, but to Naruto, it sure did feel that way.  He then put the watch around his wrist carefully, securing the black leather band where it needed it, he looked down at the watch watching the minute hand tic away in awe,  _"thanks so much, Ojii-chan, even though I don't really know how to read this, I love it anyways."_ The old man had figured as much and taught him how that day. Right now, his watch was saying that he was a few minutes earlier than when he usually get there, that was why he didn't see the old man at the usual spot as always. Since it was his birthday and all, he always got there just a little bit earlier than the old man did, it became another little ritual that he happily took part in.

 

"Aha, as I thought, you're extra early today, aren't you, Naruto?" 

 

Naruto looked up at the old man's daughter, Ayame, she walked over to the young blond with a smile, "Hai, Onee-san(big sister), I just wanted wanted to come over early  because I couldn't sleep." He said truthfully, "what are you doing out here so early, heading to school?"He asked, noticing her back pack.

 

Ayame shook her head, "no, school doesn't start for another few weeks, so I thought I'd come cover here to see if you did your homework," she said.

 

Naruto nodded, he took out a folded peace of paper from his pants pocket and handed it to her. She took the folded paper, unfolded it and looked it over, ever since Naruto started working with Ayame and her dad, she's been teaching him some of the basic stuff that she learned at his age. At first Naruto didn't get it, he did want to learn but sometimes sitting still wasn't his specialty. Ayame was a little sad when she found out that he didn't have a friend in the whole village, not a single one, so she decided to be his friend and as a good friend, she wanted to teach him how to read and write. She even came up with new ways to get him to focus on what he was learning, she found that moving around helped him think better, things like; washing dishes, sweeping the floor, wiping down counters and other surfaces, as well as dusting helped him with other subjects too. By the time a year went by, Ayame was starting to believe that Naruto was only acting dumb so he could find friends to play with, yet at the same time, she also felt that his brain must work differently that others. It's like autism, he wasn't stupid, he just thought differently than others usually would. 

 

She nodded as she took a final over the papers she got from Naruto, "alright, that's it, you are officially smarter than me when I was your age," Ayame said with a big smile.

 

"No way, Onee-san, I don't know nothin', I just did what you taught me to do," Naruto said as he scratched the back of his head.

 

Ayame smiled, "alright Naruto, if you say so," she said. She removed her back pack from her back and opened it, she pulled out a famous box lunch, this one being bigger than the usual ones she brought with to work. Her lunches always varied from day to day, never bring the same lunch twice in a row, she always brought one for Naruto to have, even though he always ate ramen for lunch, he always took it home for his dinner. However, whenever Naruto's birthday rolled around, Ayame made sure to make a extra big box for him to take home, making sure they let him leave early so as not to get mugged on the way. "Here, it's your dinner for tonight, this time I put in some extra dongos and sweet dumplings for you just like you like them. Try not to eat all the candy in one night, for my sake, okay?"

 

"Sure you bet, Onee-san," Naruto took the large box from her, it was wrapped in it's usual dark blue blanket. The edges of the would be box had been covered in something soft under the blanket to hid it's content better, which was well appreciated. The first time Ayame gave him the large box without the extra padding, some older kids stopped him not too far from the shop and stole the whole thing after beating him up to get it. That was the day Naruto realized that even if he still wanted to, he wouldn't want to make any friends, not from this village anyways.

 

"Oi, you two, what have I told you about standing out here alone so early in the morning?" said old man Teuchi, he was walking over to the two kids, a smile on his face, he had a plastic bag in one hand and a large box in the other. He smiled down at Naruto who smiled right on back at him, "good to see ya, now lets start the day, shall we?"

* * *

* * *

* * *

 

The day went bay smoothly without much problems, since it was Naruto's birthday, Teuchi had brought the usual birthday cake he always bought for just the three of them. They sang happy birthday to the birthday boy like always before watching him blow out his candles and taking a photo or two to commemorate it. Soon after the cake was cut and shared between them, Teuchi gave Naruto a small box. Ever since he gave Naruto the watch that he ware each and every day faithfully, he made sure to give the boy things that he thought he would need in life, or maybe what he thought he was missing in his childhood. It was the usual birthday traditions that Naruto loved so much, which made working at Ichiraku's that much better. The young boy opened the box to find a book inside (yes a book), but it wasn't just any old boring book that some would give to 'count the thought', no, the title read _"The art of being an under cover Bad ASS!!"_. It was the last book in a small collection that Naruto has been obsessed with in the past two years, there were five books in the collection in all: 

 

_A Big ASS dreams!_   
_The life of a Kick ASS fighter!_   
_Bad ASS-o-ry_   
_ Finding the way down a Fine Ass Journey! _  
_ The art of being a Bad ASS!  _

__

"I finally got the last one! My Ass collection is finally complete, YAY! Thank you so much Ojii-chan!" Naruto cheered happily, (as you can see, it was clearly called 'ASS' collection for shits and giggles). It was a book about a ninja that was slimier to Naruto in some ways, save for having a demon locked up inside him and stuff, and he couldn't get enough of the book. Now that he had the last volume he leaped for joy. Thankfully it was already the end of the day and there were no customers to hear Naruto's happy cheers of completing his favorite collection called  _ASS_ , or to hear his happiness at all, he knew anyone else would ruin it for him.

"Alright Naruto, why don't you settle down, ne?" Said Ayame with a sweet smile, I've got something for you too.

 

"Huh? You do, Onee-san?" Naruto asked from where he stood after he was down jumping around,

 

Ayame nodded, she took out another box that was bigger in size than the box his ASS book came in, she held it out to the young blond and watched him open it. It was another book, the title simply said read  _"Ninja's and stuff"_ , the box also held some pens and pencils, and a small messenger bag. Naruto opened the book that said  _Ninja's and stuff_ , it was filled with blank pages. "It's a journal," Ayame said seeing the confused look on Naruto's face.

 

"A journal?" Naruto repeated flipping through the pages.

 

"Hai, it's a journal for you to write down whatever you want in it, it'll be like you're writing your own navel.The best part is that it's all about you, anything you write in there will be fore your eyes only." Ayame reached into her bag and pulled out her own journal, the cover read _"Working Ramen"_ , with a red thread coming from betwen the pages, it looked a little warn but still in good shape, "see, I have one too."

 

"So do I, but I mostly use mine for new recipes more than anything else," the old man chimed in as he ate some of his cake.

 

Naruto looked at the journal in his hands again, he smiled, "so I can write anything I want in here and one one will ever know?"

 

Ayame and her dad nodded, "I know you live alone and all, Naruto, but I think that if you keep that journal in a safe place, I bet you're gonna feel a hug sense of security every time you find it the place you left it. Trust me," said the old man, Naruto watched him for a moment and nodded, he knew the old man had to be right.

* * *

* * *

* * *

 

 

It was a little past sun down when Naruto opened the door to his apartment, he closed the door and and locked it behind him before going over to the kitchen to put his food away. He put the bag and pencils in his room before settling down on his sofa to read his new book. A few hours in and he was almost the middle of the book, by now it was already a few minutes to midnight when he heard a knock on his front door. He looked up at the clock on the wall and double checked it with his watch, it was exactly 11:50 pm,  _'who could that be at this hour?'_ He thought to himself, he closed his book and walked over to the door, he got his stepping stool and propped himself on is tippy-toes to look through the peep hole. He saw a man that he didn't know standing out there looking at the door, the dumb thing to do would have been to just open it with out checking first. Another dumb thing to do would be to ask who the man was and what he wanted, that would be dumb because he saw a horror movie about a girl that did that ones and it didn't end well for her. Plus the fact that it was now 11:52 pm at night, you get the point. Anyways the guy at the door, he looked suspicious, like very, so Naruto didn't trust the teme at his door at the moment. However, that changed, slight, when he saw the man's face, it was the third Hokage.

Naruto blinked and rubbed at his eyes before looking at the man through the peep hole again, yep it was him, the third in the flesh, he wasn't wearing his usual robes and hat. Instead he had on full on ninja gear, He also looked very impatient, he knocked on his door again, this time more loudly. "Naruto, open the door, I need to talk to you, it's very impotent!" Said the third.

 

Naruto was now worried, _"what could be so important that the Hokage would come here?"_ He wondered as he hopped down from the step stool and opened the door, "hay, Ojii-chan, what's the matter?" He asked as the third walked into the room.

 

"Naruto, good you're up, I must come in and speak with you," said the third as he walked into the apartment and looked around the room. 

 

"Hay, Ojii-chan, what's the matter?" Asked Naruto as he watched the man sweep through his tiny apartment casually, "are you looking for something?" By this time he had already closed and clocked the door before he walked back over to the sofa where he had been reading his book earlier. 

 

When it seemed that the third was finally satisfied with his look around the house, he turned to Naruto and smiled at him, "actually Naruto, I came here to see you, a little bird told me that it was your birthday today, congratulations." Said the third as he walked over to the sofa and took a seat next to the blond boy, He looked him up and down with a small smirk on his face, for some reason his eyes lingered a bit in places that made Naruto feel a little more than uncomfortable. "You're finally at the right age, to enter the academy I mean, are you happy about that?" He reached over and placed a gentile hand on the young boys small shoulder, "what are you're thoughts?"

 

A voice in the very back of his mind told him that something very was happening, or was about to happen, Naruto looked up into the eyes of the third Hokage. Something didn't feel...right about him, he felt fake, like his eye was deceiving him or something. "Uh-uhm, well I like the thought of going to school to become a ninja so I can protect the village," the blond said feeling nervous around the older man. To be honest, he didn't care much for the village at this point after what everyone did to him, but he did want to protect Ichiraku's, Ayame and her dad, and they ere apart of te village so it technically wasn't a full out lie.

 

The third seemed to like this answer very much because he patted Naruto's shoulders and pulled him closer to him, "that's good, that's good,"

 

A shiver went down Naruto's spine as he was pulled closer to the man. There was a voice in the back of Naruto's mind, an actual voice this time, it seemed to be yelling at him to get out of this situation, but it was faint,and couldn't hear it well.  Suddenly there was a noise out side that drew his attention, it sounded like foot steps, _"What's going on here?"_ the third got up from his seat and put his hands on his hips, and walked over to the sink.

 

"What do you say we have a toast in honor of this day?" Asked the third, taking up to cups and filling them with some juice he found in the fridge, he walked back to and handed him one of the cups, "to you, Naruto." The voice at the back of his head got a little louder, but he couldn't really hear what it was say to him, it was obvious that it didn't like what was going on.

 

Naruto looked into his cup, it looked like regular orange juice to him, he glanced up at the man as he took sip from his cup. "Okay, sure," he mumbled as he took a sip from his own cup, not too soon after he pulled the cup from his lips that he dropped it. It hit the floor with a  _THUD_ and a  _SPLAT_ as the contents hit the floor and started to spread out, the cup bounced and rolled away from them, he watched the cup on the floor wondering why he dropped it. He went to pick it up and realized too late that he couldn't feel his arm, in fact, he could feel anything. He could see that he was falling to the floor but he couldn't stop himself from the action, he saw more than felt when the ground came up to meet him, he heard a chuckle from over him. The third Hokage's feet came into view before a  _POOF_ -ing sound was heard and someone else as now standing over the drugged boy, he looked up but his hair blocked most of his view, so the most that he saw was a jounin's uniform. The one standing over him laughed cruelly and walked out of view, he heard his door open and some voices started to talk, but they sounded muffled and too far away for him to know what was said. Two sets of legs came into view as the light in the room seem fade away from his sight, his head felt like it was spinning and that voice from before seemed to be much, much louder now.

 

 **"Damn it, kit, why didn't you listen to me?"** The voice asked just before everything went black and his mind shut off like a light.

* * *

* * *

* * *

 

 

Naruto opened his eyes to a dark ceiling, he tried to move a bit but found that he couldn't do to the fact that was strapped down to something hard, he wasn't sure if it was a table or the ground itself, but that wasn't what bothered him most at the moment. He looked around to see where he was, however, his view was very limited and he only found that it was too dark to see anything that would tell him where he was. There was also another problem, he noticed that he was moving, or being moved,  _''what th-what's going on?...why's it so dark? Where am I?"_ His brain thought drowsily as it fought to wake up, he was about to call out to someone to help hi but stopped, one because he was sure that no one really cared about him and what happened to him. Two he didn't think anyone was willing/able to come to his aid even if he begged. Three, his mouth was covered, he blinked a few times and found that the reason couldn't see was because his eyes was covered. A sudden gust of wind brought his attention to another problem to the ever growing list of worries, he was naked.

 

He was starting to panic when suddenly he felt whatever it was that he was strapped down to abruptly stopped, and shifted sharply as his once horizontal body went vertical so fast that it made his already spinning head spin even more. His head fell forward and stayed like that because even though he was awake and aware with limited movement, he didn't have the strength to lift his head. Whatever drug they had given him hadn't left his body just yet. There was a brief flutter of movement around him and before he heard a loud set of cheering settle in around him. Now he felt truly scared as he seemed to be in front of a large crowd, whistling and whoops were heard from all around, he could hear a loud banging sound to his right as the crowd started to go silent.

 

"Alright, lets start the bidding at one hundred, do I hear one hundred yen? One hundred, two hundred?" Voice to his right, as the crowd roared to life again.

 

 _"Huh? what's going on?  wh-what's all this, are they trying to win something?"_ Naruto asked himself silently as he heard the crown carry on, there was an extra loud cheer when the person to his right said, "sold! To the man in front, please come up and take a look at your prize sir!" Naruto just hung there, unable to move as he heard foot steps come closer and closer to him. They stopped right in front of where he hung like a picture on a wall, a hand reached out and touched Naruto's privet parts and he realized what had just happened. He was sold of to the highest bidder for nothing more than ten dollars, he was so shocked that he didn't notice when the hand stopped touching him, he was on the move again, this time at a faster pace. He started to pull frantically at his bonds in hopes to loosen then just enough for him to pull his hand free, he pulled and tugged, struggling for freedom until a deep throaty laugh chilled him. His movements stilled and he began to shake.

 

"Keep fighting boy, this guy likes the feisty ones," came a deep laugh from above Naruto's head. 

 

A minute later the man stopped pushing Naruto to knock on a door, the door opened and the movement continued. He looked around forgetting that he was blindfolded, the hand from before returned, roaming his nude body. "HA so this is the vessel for the nine tailed fox huh?" Said a spite-filled voice, 

 

Naruto heard a button being pressed before he felt himself fall and hit the ground, hard. He lifted his had to his face, he was free of that-that, whatever it was, but he still didn't have enough strength to move, let alone run away. He pulled the folds from over his mouth and took in a deep breath and let it out shakily, "wh-what do you want from me?" He said with a soar throat.

 

"What do I want from you? Oh man, that's not hard to answer at all, I want all of you! Isn't it obvious?" Said the man that released him, he walked over to Naruto's fallen body and picked him up roughly, "c'mon, we're going to have a little fun before I have to give you back."

 

Naruto was thrown onto the bed so had that he bounced up in the air twice before falling still on top the soft sheets, the older man climbed on top of him instantly. Not wasting any time to flip him on his stomach and holding him there for few moments with one hand, as he did something with his other hand. The young blond struggled under the weight of the older on top of him, he was too heavy, he was being crushed. Finally done with what he was doing, the older male shifted his weight and moved his hand from where he was pressing down on the the small blond's back. both of his hands went down to the boys small rounded butt, one cheek in each hand, he spread them apart as wide as they could go to reveal what he truly wanted. Naruto struggled to get away from those hands as soon as he felt something hard and slimy press to his hole, somehow he knew that if it entered him there, there would be no going back. He breath a fleeting sigh of re-leafwhen the object was taken away for the shortest second before it was thrust into Naruto's poor, _tiny_ , _un-peppered_ hole.  _ **HARD**_. "Damn, you're tighter than that virgin bitch I fucked last night!" The man said as he berried himself deep with in Naruto's body for a few heartbeats before ripping it from the _extremely_ _tight_ space. 

 

A sound that was caught between a start of a scream and a gasp was heard was the pain shot through Naruto's little, the tears rolling down his eye, un-controlled. He was losing air fast as he scream his body was trying to let was, at the same time, unable to escape it's prison, his mouth held open from the pour shock of it all. As the offending object left his small body, so did a heart wrenching scream that would make any one who heard it weep tears of sorrow for him. The scream startled the man as if he just realized that this was still a human being causing him to pause, this didn't stop him for lone though, he waited for Naruto to stop screaming before he plunged himself back into the small boys butt hole once more. He pulled out again, this time he took less time to go back in. He repeated this action until the boy was about to passed out from all the unimaginable pain he was in, he was laughing heartily as he thrust into the blond's body over, and over, and over,again without stopping. Changing his angles ever so often to hit new spots inside the boy, all the while tearing through more of the tight muscle to have his pleasure, this went on for an unknown amount of time before the man above him cam inside of him and collapsed next to him. 

 

Tears streamed down Naruto's face as the other man lay on the bed next to him, he turned his head away from him as he cried, as his body started to heal it self automatically, he knew that there was one thing that wasn't going to heal. It was never going to heal no matter how much time he gave his body to do it, it wouldn't heal because it had been taken from him. Finally his mind fell into a deep, dark dreamless sleep, some part of him wished that he would never wake up again.

* * *

* * *

* * *

 

 

  **2 months later**

 

Naruto's eyes opened to the sight of the sun shinning down on him, his body felt stiff from lack of use,he lifted his hands to see that any wounds that he had gotten was now completely gone.His body didn't ache and he almost felt like his old self again. He sat up and looked around at his surroundings, he was in a forest somewhere, he looked down at his self, he was still naked and covered in some blood. There was a blanket on him, he wrapped it around himself before standing, his stomach grumbled, he walked out of the woods in a slight daze, he wasn't even sure where he was going but he let his feet lead him where it may. It was still pretty early in the morning so there wasn't people on the streets he walked through. When he reached where he was going he looked up at the Ichiraku's restaurant sign, he heard a gasp come from behind before he slender arms wrapped around him in a warm hug. He was turned to face the scorce of that warmth and came face to face with Ayame's crying face.

 

"Naruto, I can't believe that you're here! You're still alive!" Ayame cried as she brought him into another hug, the hug was cut short as a grumble was heard from his stomach, she wiped her eyes and smiled, "you must be hungry, (sniff) come on I'll fix you your favorite.

* * *

* * *

* * *

 

**1 month later**

 

 

Naruto walked through the doors of the academy, his messenger bag hanging on his shoulders. He wore a white long sleeved shirt under a bright red short sleeved shirt, navy blue baggy shorts hung loosely on his small frame. over the past week Ayame had been trying (and failing) to get Naruto to eat something, anything, but he wouldn't, not even a bowl of ramen could cheer the poor boy up. With in the past four weeks since he went missing, the only people that knew hew was missing was the old man and Ayame, if it wasn't for them making a fuss over him, the guys that kidnapped the blond eight year old wouldn't have been caught as quickly as they had been. it wasn't until three weeks after the disappearance that anyone decided to take it seriously. Most of the villagers still didn't care, but then again, some actually did, and others were starting to.

 

Now as Naruto walked into the his class, he didn't have to look up to notice that everyone was staring at him. They all knew who he was because of their parents, what they didn't know was why he was the only one he was just now starting to show up to class three months in. He handed the teacher, Iruka- sensei, the folded up explanation on why the by was so late to start, only a select few truly knew what happened to him all those weeks ago. Iruka nodded after he read the paper and looked at the blond haired boy in front of him, "alright class, this is Naruto, he started a little late so lets help him catch up, okay?"  He turned back to Naruto, "please find a seat to sit in," he said softly, Naruto turned towards the class and began finding somewhere to sit. He found a spot at the back of the class room next to a window, he didn't look at anyone as passed to get to the seat, once seated he turned his head to look out the window and blocked out the world  around him. 

 

At lunch, Naruto got up and walked out the room with his head down and his hands shoved into his pocket, he didn't look at anyone as he passed through the hallway. His messenger bag always at his side, he made it outside and was going to find a spot away from ever one else so he could be alone until the brake was over, that was the plan until he bumped into some kids from another class. Needless to say, they weren't looking to be friends, when he finally got to a spot that he could be alone at, he climbed a tree to the very top branch were no one would find him. He opened his messenger bag and took out the knife that he had found on the street a few weeks ago, he held up the knife to his wrist and didn't hesitate to slice his wrist open.

 

Watching as the wound bleed for a bit but soon started to close he felt his usual sadness to find out that this attempt of suicide wasn't going to work either. He sighed, _'well...so much for that,"_   he thought to himself.  _"Why are you keeping me alive for anyways?"_

 

 **"What are you for real kit?"** Asked the voice in the back of his head,  **"who else do you think you're taking with you when you try that type of shit?"**

 

 _"But would it mattered if I lived or died anyways? Everyone hates me and I'm not going to make any friends now after what that asshole did to me six weeks ago."_  He sighed,  _"I can't even bring myself to look in the mirror, I can't meet the old man's eyes, I'm awkward around Ayame when we do our lessons. And then there's what happened just now... after all that...living just feels..."_

 

**"It's hard, I know, I've been watching this whole time kit, but then again, I don't have much choice in the matter either."**

 

_"This is your fault you know, why'd you have to go and destroy the village back then?"_

 

**"I had my reasons back then, but that's not important right now kit..."**

 

 _"Nothing's important right now,"_ he looked down at the ground then,  _"you know we're pretty high up, I could just end both of our suffering right now, who knows, it may even be fun."_

 

There was a long pause as the voice seemed to think to itself,  **"** **nah, it wouldn't work, I've still got a lot of chakra left,"**

 

Naruto leaned back on the tree,  _"_ _fine..."_ they were quite for a while until a thought popped into his head.  _"Oi, Kuy-chan, why have I been feeling so sick lately?"_

 

**"..."**

 

He rolled his eyes,  _"oh c'mon, what's the deal? Tell me."_

 

**"...I...I don't think you're ready for that just yet"**

 

_"So I'm not ready for YOU to tell me why MY OWN BODY is sick?"_

 

**"With the state you're in, I'm going with no"**

 

_"Why is that?"_

 

**"..."**

 

Naruto huffed a sigh,  _"_ _alright, I'm jumping!"_

 

**"DON'T YOU DEAR!"**

 

 _"Then talk,"_ there was another round of silence before Naruto edged closer to the edge of the tree.

 

 **"Alright, alright!"** Kuubi was really starting to hate the little brat more and more by the second.  **"The reason why you've been feeling sick is because you have a...thing growing inside you...it's messing with your body and I can't control it."** He explained it as simply as he possibly could to a eight year old suicidal rape victim.  

 

Naruto thought for a moment,  _"Did those guys do this to me?"_

 

Surprised at how well Naruto was taking this, he continued,  **"yes. However, with me inside you, this won't out right kill you, but it will put a strain on your body seeing as how young you are, you'll need to be careful for a while until it can come out."**

 

 _"Come out of me? Will this thing be safe to be around once it leaves my body, Kuy-chan?"_  Asked Naruto,  _"I don't want people to think that I'm actually as much of a threat to the village as they say I am."_

 

Kuubbi chuckled,  **"have no worries, kit, this 'thing' can't hurt anyone even if it tried once it leaves you're body."**

 

_"Does that mean it can hurt people inside my body?"_

 

 **"No, now enough questions....and stop trying to kill us, okay kit? You're wearing me out,"** Kuubi yawned,  **"I'm taking a nap, wake me up when that kit prison ends for the day."**

 

 _"...'Kay,"_ Naruto thought after a while, he looked out at the view he had from his closed up hiding space in the tree. The branches around him hid him from view well, he had a perfect view of the academy from this spot, he was getting tired, he wouldn't admit it but he was way to tired when he came to the academy this morning.He was barely able to see straight, but with a place like this holding a bunch of people that still hated his guts for something he couldn't control, he was thankful. The hate that the villagers carry was out of his hands, as far as Naruto saw it, they were being petty and needed to grow up and fast, lord knows he had. The blond yawned and rubbed his eyes, he took one last look at the academy before he fell asleep a top the tree.

 

**_To be continued_ **

 

 


	2. Healing wounds

**Ch. 2 Healing wounds**

 

 

Naruto woke up to the sight of darkness, he blinked, looking around he found that he was still in the tree that he crawled up in at lunch time. He didn't think that he was so tired, he stretched a bit and climbed down the tall tree, he needed to get home. In the distance he could hear someone calling his name, it was a full moon tonight so it was just enough light to read his watched, it didn't glow in the dark. 8:23pm was what it said.

 

 _"Wow it was that late already?"_ He thought to himself, he was way to late to go back to class obviously, and he doubted that the old man would let him get to work at this late hour. This was usually the time he was sent home,  _"but still, I should stop by the shop to let them know I'm alright"_

 

Naruto rounded a corner and his eyes was assaulted by a flashlight, he shielded his eyes from it until the person holding the offending light dropped it and ran over to him. "Naruto!" Came the famine voice of Ayame as she hugged him, and the slightly deeper voice of Iruka. 

 

"Where have you been all this time, Naruto, we where very worried about you!" Said Iruka sensei wryly.

 

Ayame let go of Naruto, "oh Naruto, when you didn't come back to the shop after school, I was worried that those guys had found you and taken you away from us again," she said.

 

Naruto scratched the back of his head, he knew why Ayame would be worried about him, she was like his big sister, but Iruka sensei? Was this apart of his job? Was he getting paid extra to pretend to care, or did he really feel this way? Naruto didn't know, and right now he didn't care as his stomach grumbled, having been ignored for far too long. He remembered that he didn't eat lunch before and he was starting to feel weak from it. "Sorry," he said holding his stomach, "but can we get something to eat first, I'm really hungry."

 

Ayame smiled, "sure thing, I'll have dad fix you up a nice big bowl of Miso Ramen, how does that sound, good?" Naruto nodded once, "great," she stood and took his hand, "and since you helped out, you can come to, my treat."

 

Iruka smiled, "sure sounds good, but I can't let you pay for me, knowing that Naruto is safe is good enough for me." 

 

"Oh no, no, if it wasn't for you, I probably would have been stuck out here all day and night looking for the little kido, so please, i insist," said Ayame cheerfully.

 

"Alright, alright, I guess I don't have the heart to turn down a young lady's request, now can I?" Said Iruka.

 

By started walking towards the shop, Iruka and Ayame hit it off quite well, they mostly started out talking about Naruto and how he was in class, but then started taling about what they were like when they were eight. Ayama being the younger one of the two seemed to be taking quite a shine to Iruka, even though he was Naruto's teacher. Naruto, himself, didn't really care what, or who they talked about as long as he could get some ramen and then go back to sleep, he wasn't sure why he was still so sleepy after waking up  after such a long time of sleep. At the shop Naruto ordered a large bowl of ramen with extra seaweed paper on the side wrapped around some fishcake. He dipped the seaweed wrapped fishcake in the soup every now-and-then, it tasted so good to him. As was expected, the others at the shop, which included Iruka, Ayame, and the old man, asked him why he didn't come to the shop after school, he told them, "because I fell asleep and lost track of time." Ayame and the old man had a worried look on their faces because they knew that he hadn't been sleep at all since he had returned to them. They had taken the liberate of having him stay at their house until the young blond felt he was ready to go back home on his own, but even so, they were happy that he was sleeping again. The old man explained this to Iruka who nodded his head in understanding.  When it was time for the shop to close, Iruka bid them all a good night and they parted ways.

* * *

* * *

* * *

 

 

The next Naruto woke up a little early to get ready for school, his first stop was to throw up in the toilet a few times, worrying Ayame and her dad, then taking a quick shower and dressing so he could help them open the shop before having to go to school again. This time around, Naruto was the first one to get to class, which surprised everyone who came in to see him there before remembering that he was now apart of their class now. Naruto didn't pay any attention to any of them as he was staring out the window contently, he heard a few  quite or not so quite squeals and looked to see what was going on. He saw a boy with black hair and pail sink walking over to sit a few rows in front of him. He had a moody way about him that just screamed  _emo_ and  _I hate the world,_ from what he heard, his name was Sasuke. Naruto rolled his eyes not seeing anything special about the guy who was ignoring the love-y dove-y looks he got from the girls, and some guys. There were to girls that seemed to be extra bold and tried to talked to the emo Sasuke, he heard their names were Ino and Sakura. Naruto watched, out of boredom mostly, as Sasuke calmly rejected them, then some other girls went up to the guy and got the same treatment.

 

 _"So, like, is this some type of game that the girls in this class play, or is it a morning ritual like going to Ichiraku's half and hour early on my birthday?'_   Naruto thought as Iruka sensei walked into the room and settled the class before starting his lecture. When it was lunch time, he saw some more girls walk over to Sasuke only to be ignored as he walked out of the room. Through out all of this, he noticed that there was one girl in the class that didn't go up to Sasuke and faun all over him, from what he heard yesterday before he disappeared for lunch, her name was Hinata. He looked at the short haired girl who was sitting not too far from him,  _"she looks really shy and scared, almost like a puppy or something."_ He stared at her for a while longer until he got up from his seat, his bag on his shoulders, he walked over and stopped a foot away from Hinata. She turned to get up but came face to face wih Naruto and turned away swiftly, her face burning red,  _"_ Naruto smiled,  _"how cute, she's like a rabbit more than anything else, especially with those eyes of her's."_  

 

"Hi, I'm Naruto, your name's Hinata, right? Nice to meet you," Naruto said with his hands in his pockets and a wide grin on his face. Hinata mumbled her hello back to him, her face went back to it's porcelain color, save for her cheeks which stayed red, seeing her like this, he wanted to put some rabbit ears on her head and pet her. However, he didn't have any rabbit ears, but he still very much wanted to pet her, he looked around the room to see if anyone was still their or waiting for her, there wasn't. This made Naruto happy because now he was reaching out his hand, Hinata flinched when she saw him move, but that didn't stop him, his hand rested on her head and he petted her softly. Her hair felt so soft under his touch that he wanted to keep doing that all day, but then his stomach grumbled angrily for food, he chuckled at it and removed his hands, "so you wanna have lunch me, or something?" He asked.

 

Hinata looked up at him when he spoke, a look of stunned surprise was on her face, "u-um s-s-sure, I-I wo-would li-ke to," she stuttered.

 

 _"Wow that's quite the stutter she's got there, is this how she always speaks?"_ Naruto thought to himself, out loud he said, "okay, come on, I know a place real nice and quite we can go to." 

 

"O-o-okay, lead the way," Hinata said as she got up, followed Naruto out of the class room with her lunch in her hands. Naruto walked ahead of her a little, this was the first time he had lunch with anyone but Ayame, and the old man of course, it felt nice. He walked happily down the hall until he heard some voices coming from somewhere close by, it sounded like the same guys that beat him up the day before and Naruto was not in the mood for any of that today. He stopped at the end of the hall and looked both ways, there was another hallway in front of them that ran horizontally, next to that hallway was a smaller vertical hall that led outside. He peeked around the corner that was closest to him and saw them, the guys from yesterday, they were picking on some other little kid for some reason, so that meant they were distracted at the moment. He turned to face Hinata, a serious look in his eyes as he calculated his next moves.

 

 _"There are three of them around the corner, by myself I could make it out the doors no problem, but I'm not alone. Once out side there id no doubt that there will be more assholes out there to deal with and Ayame's lunch can not be taken away, she put extra sweet dumplings in there for crying out loud! The only question is, is if I get out there and there are guys that want a peace of me, can this girl keep up if we have to run?"_ Naruto folded his arms in front of him as he thought, he watched Hinata carefully, she looked like an expensive glass doll that could brake if not handled with care. Hinata squeaked under his gaze as, twiddling her thumbs and trying not to look into his eyes, Naruto sighed,  _"looks like we'll just have to work our way around the bullys and hope no one finds us while we eat."_

 

Naruto held out his hand to Hinata, "take my hand," he said. Hinata hesitated so he took her, he took another look around the corner, the guys from before were now laughing at what they had down to the kid, Naruto tighed his grip a little on Hinata, "get ready, we're about to make a run for it okay."

 

"O-okay," said Hinata as she prepared to move.

 

Naruto counted down from three in his head and then made a brake for the door with Hinata, they ran out so fast that the guys down the hall didn't even have time to see them when they turned around. Naruto and Hinata ran then ducked into a collection of shrubs to catch their breaths, looking out through the leaves he saw a group of kids playing in the front of the school. He looked around the area of their surroundings and saw a path that they could take without people spotting them together, he smiled and turned to Hinata, she was panting but it was calming down, other than that she looked to be okay. He took her hand in his again, "come on, we can't stay here, someone might find us, then our lunch will be ruined," he said.

 

She took in a deep breath, letting it out slowly, she nodded "right."

 

They waited until a kid that was picking up a ball not too far from their hiding spot to go back to the rest of the group, they waited a second more to make sure no one noticed then they dashed out of the greenery. They rounded the building to the back then ran over to the tree lines that was crowded around one corner of the back of the school. Naruto found the tree that he fell asleep in yesterday, it was a little father in to the gathering of trees, out of view from the from the buildings and teachings, even more so, the other students. He stopped in front of it and looked up, then looked back at Hinata, her shyness, even though it was still there, was married with a seriousness that rivaled Naruto's, she nodded at him looked up at the tree too. With another nod, this time to herself, she took her lunch and tied it tightly around her left arm with her right and her teeth, with a little help from Naruto, they began to climb up the tree to the highest point before finally taking a brake. They were a little sweaty and breathing hard at this point, but when their eyes caught one another's, they laughed happily knowing that they had just became very good friends. 

 

From that day on, Hinata and Naruto were joined at the hip, they told each other things that they would only tell their diary and journal. They sat together in class now too, occasionally sitting apart as to keep their friendship secret from the others, they didn't want anyone's nasty comments to taint their bond. At lunch they would always run off together to that tree without anyone noticing them, it was a ritual, and it was all their own. That was until a few months later when they noticed that Naruto's stomach was getting bigger, Naruto didn't know why because the Kuubi had erased that conversation from his memory to preserve his childhood a little longer. Hinata thought that Naruto should go to the hospital or tell an adult to see if they could explain, but she knew that the adults of the village hated Naruto for some reason and wouldn't/didn't care if he lived or died. Not to mention the fact that Naruto hated hospitals with a passion, so that was out of the question, especially after he told her why.

 

returning from his kidnapping, Naruto was forced to spend a whole month in the hospital so the evil doctors could poke him with needles and laugh at his pain, taking more blood than they needed, giving him medication that made sick. They even went so far as to poison (yes actually POISON!) him a few times so they could pump his stomach of what little food he had managed to eat while he was their. After a month had passed by with that going on, Naruto couldn't take it anymore and had to flee the hospital under the cover of nightfall, the first place he went to was his apartment which had been a big mistake!

 

**Flashback**

 

_Naruto ran as fast as he could, it was dark and he couldn't see where he was going very well, most of the street lamps in this area of the village still needed to be fixed. However, even in the dark, he could always find his way home, even when he knew that no one would be waiting for him, it felt nice to have something familiar to return to. He ran up the steps as fast as his legs could carry him, once he was at the right floor, he froze. There was a signal figure standing there waiting, it's head moved to stair at Naruto, a moment of silence passed between them before the figure started to more forward . Naruto moved back, the figure took another step forward but this time he seemed to disappear for a second before he reappeared just inches from the boy's face. An evil aura was felt before Naruto's world went black._

 

_****_

 

_When he re-woke he was in his room, the lights were off, he almost thought the whole thing to be a dream until he heard the toilet flush. His blood ran cold as he heard footsteps approach him. He felt a hand cores genitally. He couldn't move out of fear, he couldn't look any where else except for the ceiling, that soon changed when the man came to tower over his small body. The man over him had white shoulder length hair, dark eyes and a smirk on his face. His eyes filled with lust as he pulled back Naruto's covers, revealing his young, undeveloped body, he looked down at the blond as his hands traced a line down his stomach to his privet Naruto shivered at the touch but didn't dear to move, there was a voice at the back of his head that told him something bad would happen if he did._

 

_There were no words spoken as the white haired man slowly came more onto the bed in a kneeling position,_ _he lifted Naruto's lower half onto him and spread  apart his legs. His  right hand held the boy's waist while his other hand went to the man's mouth, he slicked his fingers up with saliva and....well you get the picture. There was a lot of screaming and crying that went on for a while as the man was brought over the edge,  he came in side of Naruto and collapsed next to him on the bed. He sat up and looked at Naruto's cry form next to him, a proud smile on his face at what he had down, he got up from the bed to put on his clothes and left. Once the man had gone, Naruto let himself brake down fully  and he cried himself to sleep, unable to do anything else. The next morning and almost two weeks after that night, Naruto hadn't left his bed since. The man, or any of his friends, didn't show up at the apartment either. When Ayame found out that Naruto was no longer in the hospital, that was when she decided that he would be living with her and her father._

 

**Flashback end**

 

Now it has been six months since that night, Naruto still has nightmares about _that night,_ and his kidnapping. it's only been a couple of months since then but it still felt like yesterday to him.  He's been friends with Hinata for almost four months now, they get along grate and she's the only one he even talks to about anything, or at all. Whenever they're in class, they keep to themselves, but when their alone, they talk to each other about anything and everything. That's why when Iruka sensei told them to use their free time to sharpen their skills as ninjas, Naruto and Hinata naturally picked each other to work with. Now they were sitting under their usual try talking about what they could do, or couldn't do.

 

"Forgive my rudeness, Naruto, but I couldn't help but notice that you've gained some weight. I'm not calling you fat or anything...it's just," Hinata searched for the right words, "I guess I got the impression that you like to be slim and fit, like some of the Iruka sensei."

 

Naruto shook his head, he had noticed his weight gain and wasn't too thrilled about it either, even used some of the money he had saved to buy himself some bigger clothes to hide the fact, which worked like a charm. Only Hinata knew about the few extra pounds, "I know, but I don't know what to do about it, I try to do some stomach crunches the other day and almost passed out." He explained, he put his hand on top of his stomach which was covered by a extra baggy black t-shirt, "if this continues I think I might have to quit coming to school at this rate."

 

"Oh no, you can't do that, you may never become a ninja if you do that," panicked Hinata.

 

"I know, and I don't want to do that either," Naruto said with a yawn.

 

"Naruto, are you okay? You've been yawning all day, you even dozed off in the middle of class while the third Hokage was visiting, I had to hid you from them with a pile of box so you couldn't get scowled for sleeping." Hinata explained, she sighed, "and this isn't the first time either."

 

"I know, I know, Nata, but I can't help it," groaned Naruto, "every time I try to sleep at night, or when I finally do, something always wakes me up."

 

"Something like what," asked Hinata.

 

"Well, when I'm laying down on by back, I feel like I'm gonna suffocate, I always need to pee every few hours, it's like clock work! And I don't drink water before bed anymore because of that, so don't ask," he said when Hinata was about to say something. "lets see, um, I think that the biggest thing would be when I get this feeling in my stomach, like there's something trapped in side me that's trying to escape but can't..." he shivered, "it kinda freaks me out, you know?"

 

Hinata had pulled out a pen and a notepad to write down everything that Naruto was telling her, when she was done writing, she took out a book from her bag and started flipping through it. "I got this book from the library the other day after you started falling asleep in class, I've looked though a bunch of times but I still can't find anything that can explain what's happening to you."

 

"Oh yeah, what kind of book is that?" Naruto asked as he scooted over to get a better look at what she was looking at.

 

"It's a medical book," she said putting the book down on her lap for Naruto to see, "I thought it would help, but..."

 

"Okay, so what have you found so far?" asked Naruto.

 

"This," Hinata flipped to a page in the book that showed a picture of a pregnant woman, it showed what the inside of her stomach looked like with a baby inside it, "this is the only thing that I could find that matched. I know you said that your low back has been hurting you, and your feet swells up sometimes too, you even have cravings for some weird food."

 

"What'd you Nata, rice balls with jelly are delicious," Naruto said before taking out one of said ice balls for his best friend to see.

 

Hinata wrinkled up her nose a little at it, last time it was pickles and peanut-butter, yuck! "I'll take your word for, Naruto." She sighed, "it's almost time to go back in, lets hurry before the other kids catch up with us."

 

"Okay," Naruto said as he shoved the odd mound of rice and jelly into his mouth, he washed it down with what was left of his tea before trying to get up. Since the weight gain, he's been having trouble getting up off the ground on his own hard, Hinata helps out without needing to be asked, "alright, lets get going." 

 

The two of them walked back to class at their own pace, they were talking about meeting up at the park after school to figure out Naruto's weight problem. The reason why they couldn't go straight to the park after school was because Hinata's dad wouldn't allow it, so she had to sneak out somehow, and Naruto wanted to help out at Ichiraku's until she could get out, if at all, and meet him there.  Although, those plans would have to wait until later because right now a group of girls, who were surrounding Sasuke made their way over to them. Sasuke looked at the two of them ans sharply turned his head and began to walk away. Or tried to, but one of his fan girls were blocking his way, Naruto rolled his eyes at the sight and turned to Hinata, "let's just go around, I've suddenly got a headache," which was true because the fan girls had started to squeal like pigs for no reason. 

 

"What was that, Naruto?!" Yelled two of the fan girls, one was Ino and the other was Sakura.

 

Naruto couldn't stand those to, he thought that they were ugly for the way they drooled over a guy that didn't even give them the light of day.  _"Jeez don't blind me with that forehead Sakura, and is that Ino girl sick or something? she looks like she hasn't eaten in months!"_ He thought to himself, Hinata could tell what he was thinking and chuckled softly, it drew Naruto's attention and he smiled a little,  _"see, why couldn't they be more like Hinata? she's quite and smart, and she doesn't drool and chase after a guy that won't even look at her, she's perfect!_

 

"What's so funny, Hinata!" Ino asked and pushed her to the ground.

 

"Hinata!" Naruto shouted as he knelt to help her up, he turned a hard glare onto the Ino pig and shinny forehead of Sakura, "what was that for?"

 

"Ha!The monster speaks!" Said Sakura, "I was just thinking that monsters could only growl and make other unsightly animal noises, I guys I was wrong."

 

Naruto ignored her comments and turned his focus onto Hinata, "are you again, Hinata?" He asked as he helped the fallen girl back onto her feet, "are you hurt?"

 

"No I'm fine," Hinata said with a smile as she righted herself.

 

"Tch, don't ignore people when they're talking to you freak," Ino said, and was ignored by Naruto and Hinata.

 

"Well that's g-" Naruto was cut off with another pig-like squeal from the fan girls when Sasuke turned his attention to Ino and Sakura.

 

"I'm going back to class, so move," Sasuke said as he walked passed Ino and Sakura, He paused at Hinata and Naruto, "you two okay?" Hinata nodded, so did Naruto with a protective hand on her shoulder, "alright, I'll see you guys back in class, try not to be late if you can help it," he said as he walked away.

 

 _"I guess he's not so bad after all, his manners are not horrible, just needs a little work,"_  Naruto thought, out loud he said, "let's get to class to, we don't want to be late," Hinata nodded.

 

The two had just started to walk away when they heard Sakura grumble something like, "you made Sasuke hate us, not you pay," or something close to that, before the pink haired girl charged forward. She whipped Naruto around and landed one punch to his stomach that sent him flying down the hallway and land on the very far wall almost several yards away from them, then she calmed herself down before walking pasted a shocked Hinata and walked into class. The way Naruto landed on the wall left a indent of his body before he slide down contuse, Hinata ran over to him as quick as she could, she shook him and tried to wake him but couldn't. She looked around the hall seeing that one or more doors open to find out what was going on, they all quickly closed their doors once they saw Naruto laying on the ground, as if it was a natural thing for him to be there like that. She turned back to the boy in question and felt around his neck for a pulse,  _"whew, at least he's still alive,"_ she thought.  She quickly went to work on lifting up, or trying to, but couldn't so she ended up dragging him to the infirmary.

 

No one was their when she got to the infirmary, so she made quick work of putting him on one of the beds, making sure that he was laying on his side as she remembered what he tolde her before in the woods. She got a cloth and socked it in cool water before placing it on his head, after a few minute, Naruto grunted in pain and grabbed his abdominal area, he curled up into a ball as rolled and gasped for air. Hinata was started but she quickly went to his side asking him what was wrong, he didn't respond at first, the pain being to grate, but he manage to say "bathroom" through gritted teeth, with that she nodded and helped get him to the boy's bathroom.

 

"Alright, Naruto, I'll be just out side waiting for..." she was cut off when Naruto grabbed her hand.

 

"Stay...please, I...need you," he said while he was doubled over, Hinata wasn't sure if she should do that or not, but Naruto was her friend, he was her only friend in face, so she decided to stay by his side.

 

"I'll stay," said Hinata, they went into the bathroom together and stayed there for a long time.

 

In the bathroom Naruto was on the toilet, pants around his ankles, and bent forward in pain, Hinata had given him a rolled up handkerchief to bite down on as she rubbed soothing circles into his back. She didn't know how long they had actually been like that, but she was really starting to get worried for her friend, she was thinking that they should go out and find someone to help  them with this problem, someone like Iruka sensei would be nice, he actually gave a damn if Naruto lived or not. She was just getting ready to say just that when a loud  _SPLASH_ was heard, Naruto was now gasping for air as he fell off the toilet and onto the floor, Hinata's eyes was to the size of saucers when she saw what was left behind.

 

She toilet water was filled with blood, but that wasn't what shocked her, no, she saw this tiny shriveled up creature laying face up in the bloody water. It had ten fingers and toes, two arms and legs, a head, and a fine layer of yellow hair, it's skin was blue...wait, no that's not quite right, it was  _TURNING_ blue. Hinata paled, without thinking, she dipped her hands into the blood filled water and retrieved the little thing, she looked around for something to wrap it in. Remembered the blanket that they used to sit on for lunch and dug it out of he bag,it would just have to do, she did her best to wrap the child, noticing that it's skin was starting to get really cold. She turned attention back to Naruto who was still shivering from the pain on the floor, she knelt down next to him with the baby, she whipped her wet hands on her clothes before touching him. He opened his eyes at her touch and sighed, his breath finally coming back to normal, he looked into her arms at the baby, it looked so much like him one the color returned to it's face. With what little energy he had, he reached out to the tiny child, his movements almost automatic as he whipped away some of his blood from it's face, it didn't move at all, it was almost as if it were dead. At this thought Naruto sat up slowly ignoring the pain he still felt from his bum, so he could see the child better. Hinata handed him the bundled up, un-moving infant, he used some of the blanket to wipe of more of the blood, he cleaned around the eyes, nose, and mouth, but still the child didn't move. It wasn't a very big, barely big enough to fit into both of Naruto's young hands. A tear ran down his face as a over welling feeling of loss welled up with in him, Hinata wrapped the baby up a little more to help it get worm but it wasn't working, it's skin had already started to go gray. Naruto hugged the child to his body, his heart felt as if it would explode with sadness as he cried, Hinata's arms came around him as she wept silently. 

 

The tears flowed freely from their eyes even as they hear the other kids start to enter the hallway and leave to go home. They were quite as they heard Iruka sensei pass by the bathroom looking for them, they did't want to see anyone, and they didn't want anyone to see them. They were still there as the sun started to go down and and the bathroom stall that they were in started to get dark.And then when the sun finally fled and all that was left was the light of the mood to show them what was lost, they still couldn't move. It had been hours now and it was clear that the child was not going to wake up or make any sound, they were no signs of life left on the child's face, or in it's body, it was gone. It didn't even open it's eyes, take it's first breath, before the light within flicked out. "D-did you see, what...what it was?" Naruto asked finally, his voice raspy and soar from the crying.

 

"A boy," Hinata said quietly, more quit than usual.

 

The stall was filled with silence once more before Naruto spoke again, "Aiko," he said, Hinata looked up at him then, "that's his name."

 

"It's beautiful," said Hinata, he didn't want to say what needed to be done now, they both knew, "...Naruto."

 

Naruto nodded, not needing her to say anything else, she stood up and flushed the toilet a bad reminder as they remember were they were, she helped him to his feet and pulled up his hands for him. she grabbed their stuff and walked out of the stall, stopping at the sink to watch her hands, before continuing out the door with Naruto at her side. The hallway was pitch black now, everyone had already left, there was no doubt that that her father would be anger at her for not coming home yet, she wouldn't be surprised in the least if he hit her for it too, but she didn't care about that right now. Ayame and the old man would be worried about him again, he wouldn't be surprised if they teamed up with Iruka sensei to form a small search party with some of the Hyuga family members to find the two of them. But none of that mattered, not right now. 

 

The two of them walked down the hall in perfect silence, hold a baby that was equally silent, and the halls around them more quit than that. The walked together, hand in hand out the front door of the academy, they found their way to the front of the building and then onto the road. Everything was dark, only have the street lamps to guide their way, they rounded a few corners, went down a few pathways, neither of them saying a single word as they passed by civilization. They walked by a meadow of flowers that would be so beautiful in the morning, passing by a large lake that not only reflected the moon perfectly, but shined and sparkled with it's light. They felt no fear as they climbed up the small hill that led into a dense wooded area, only a small fraction of light shining thought the trees, they walked through it until they came upon a clearing of trees. There was a large rock there and the view of the moon was wonderful, staring up at it's pale light felt peaceful, looking down at the ground now, they saw the spot were Aiko would be. Naruto walked over to the rock and placed Aiko next to it, he took out two kunis, one for her, one for himself, and they began to let out all of their sorrows pain out on the warm ground. They stabbed and dug their kuni into the grass covered earth until all the dirt beneath it was turned up, the dug a hole big enough for the tiny child, deep enough that he would be disturbed, they pulled roots out of the way, jabbed at hard spots, throw away rocks that got in their way, and turned the earth until it was soft enough to sleep in. When they were done, Hinata was the one to bring Aiko to his newly soften bed, they both looked at him then what they had done, it wasn't right, he was only a baby, and now he was being put into the ground by tow eight year old's who barely knew how they got to this point. 

 

"This isn't... I-I..." Hinata began but couldn't get the words out.

 

Naruto put his hands on her shoulder before moving to take the baby from her, tears running down their faces again, mixing with the sweat they worked up while digging. He put Aiko down on the soft dirt, a finger raised to trail down the side of the tine face, it was so cold. He stood and backed away from the sleeping child, taking a hand full of the warm dirt to place it into the grave, Hinata followed suit, taking a hand full of dirt to fill the grave. They did this slow, repetitive action until the ground had been filled back in and they could no longer see Aiko's sleeping face,they couldn't throw the dirt into the grave, it felt rude and disrespectful to the child, so the did it this way, then patted down the dirt tight. Feeling the warmth of the dirt was almost like feeling the warmth of Aiko, even though they knew it wasn't really his warmth to give, but still, it was warm soft and hey welcomed it all the same. A stabbing feeling in both their chest was what triggered the full force of the sadness and they couldn't hold back any longer, they cried hard and loud, making pain filled sounds as they wept for the lost child, it was a pain like no other, the pain of loss and longing rocked their body's violently, as it called forth their tears.

 

They cried until they they were gasping for the air to renter their lungs again, when they stopped crying at last the whipped away the last of their tears as they sat their in silence, they had been their for so long that they didn't notice the sun come up until the area around them was filled with warm golden rays. They turned to look, at it it was beautiful, breath taking even. Naruto got up first, he walked over to the rock, around the other side then sat down and slumped against it, his feet hang over the edge of the cliff, Hinata joined, coming around the other side, sitting with her feet hanging off the edge of the cliff as well. At some point during the night, they had taken off their shoes and jackets, probably while they were digging, who could say, they were both sweaty and dirty, digging though as they did, their hands were bruised and bleeding, their knees scraped and bleeding as well. They were tired as they sat their against the rock, no energy to move, say a word, or even think, they just sat their watching the sun come up from over the horizon then lift itself high into the sky.

* * *

* * *

* * *

 

 

When they both woke up again, they were surrounded by light, it was sometime in the early/mid-afternoon, about 3:10pm when Naruto checked his watch. They looked at each other, not wanting to talk about what happened to bring them both to where they were, they decided to get some food. Naruto stood up, then helped Hinata to her feet, they walked around the rock carefully, not seeing that the sides of the rock wasn't as wide was they thought, and went to pick up their stuff. They put their shoes in their bags, along with their jackets, which left Hinata in a pink tank top and some light blue pants, Naruto in two over sized shirts, a white long sleeve over a short, with some a black pants. Naruto took off his black t-shirt and gave it to Hinata, she put it on without question, he took her hand in his when she was finished and they both walled back to civilization. 

 

They got some funny looks as they walked down the busy streets, they ignored all who tried to talk to them. things like, _"that poor girl has been taken in by the monster"_ and things like,  _"how could she walk so close to it"_. especially things like,  _"that thing should have been killed a long time again, so it wouldn't taint our kids with it's evil"_ was not heard by Naruto or Hinata. As they entered Ichiraku's, they were both hugged on sight and given to large bowls of miso ramen, which they both slurped down happily, they both had a second bowl, and was working on the third when Hinata's dad came in. It didn't bother Hinata that her dad, Hyashi Hyuga was there staring at his daughter with the possible intent to kill, she just kept on slurping down her ramen as he gave her a peace of his mind. When they were done with the third bowl, they promptly paid the tab, Ignored all questions about what happened between them the night before and left the shop. 

* * *

* * *

* * *

 

 

Seeing as Hinata may never get the chance to be this free again for a long while, she wanted to live it a bit, they had just spent the night burring a newborn for Kami's sake! They both needed some cheering up, and how else would they cheer up unless they went shopping, yes the thought of vandalizing the village and things of that nature did pop into their heads. However, becoming the little monsters that the villagers have always accused Naruto of being was not the answer. With years worth of savings burning a hole in their pockets, Naruto and Hinata went on a shopping spree through out the village. 

 

**Bath**

 

The first thing they wanted to do was take a bath, they had dirt, sweat, tears, and blood all over them now and it was pretty, so they needed a bath, asap. The owner had fallen asleep and the bath house was pretty much empty right then, they slipped the money onto the counter and without saying anything, then went to take their baths secretly. They had put their clothes to wash in the washing matching so it was ready for them when they were done, they left a small puddle of a mud/blood mix on the floor for someone else to clean. It was like washing away their pain.

 

**Sweets**

 

The next thing that they wanted to do was have some sweets, they both loved baked goods, so they his every shop and store in town for some goodies. They went back to the grave they buried Aiko in and had a feast. They had tears in their eyes as they ate, but they didn't want to be sad anymore, so they thought of what it would have been like if Aiko was alive. He wouldn't be able to eat any of the sweets they had bought, but he still would have been there. Suddenly they realized that Aiko's grave was way too bear to be called a grave, it was plain dirt, surrounded by grass, with a big rock behind it. It felt cold and lonely, that was not what they wanted to feel right now. Aiko wasn't alive long, but he did leave an impression on them, so they wanted to make the grave feel welcoming, that's why the next thing that they would do would be to go shopping.

 

**Cemetery register**

 

"We need a tombstone, something nice, but not not flashy," said Hinata to the woman at the front desk.

 

"A tombstone? My dear, whatever for?" Asked the woman behind the desk.

 

"Well duh, it's for grave baa-chan, what else would it be used for?" Naruto said matter-of-factually to the dumb woman.

 

The woman looked up at him then back to Hinata, "did someone close to you die recently?" The woman asked, ignoring Naruto.

 

Hinata knew what the woman was doing, but try to be polite so they could hurry and look at the selection of marks they had, "yes, may we see your selection please?"

 

"Oh my how awful! You must be so sad, the must be the hardest-" The went on and on about how sad Hinata must have bee, why Hinata and Naruto was both ready to leave when she finally said, "wait right here sweetheart, I'll bring out a album for you."

 

"Thank you," Hinata said.

 

"Finally!" Naruto said once the woman was gone, "I didn't think that that baka would ever shut up!" 

 

"Naruto, keep your voice down before she comes back with some story that will bring us both to our deaths," Hinata said jokingly.

 

Naruto chuckled, "you got that right," he said just before the door that the woman disappeared behind opened. 

 

She walked over to the both of them with a book and handed it to Hinata, still ignoring Naruto out of spite. "Here you go dear, just flip through this and let me know which ones you like, I'll write it down and let you know know when it ready, you can write down all the information for it on this paper," the woman handed Hinata a peace of paper and a pencil.

 

They waited for the woman to walk away before they looked through the book, they saw a few tombstones that they did like, but not ones that seemed to fit what they thought that Aiko would like. They wanted something that was simple, hold a deep meaning to them, and represent Aiko's short life with them. They flipped a couple more page until they found the perfect one, it was a light gray with an angel carved out at the top, The wings spread open and it seemed to be just sitting there on top of the stone smiling at them, there was a design of three roses at the bottom, the middle one being the biggest, their vines spreading out and circling a blank space. Naruto nodded to Hinata and they wrote the information for it down on the paper, it read:

 

_**Aiko Uzumaki** _

_**The angel that was gone too soon** _

 

 _Hinata handed the paper to the woman, the woman thanked her and looked at what it read, she looked back at Hinata, then to Naruto before turning back to the paper. She didn't say anything, probably assuming something like "oh, well this must be the name of her dog, poor thing,"_ she nodded to herself as if to confirm her own thoughts. "Thank you, You order will be ready within two to three hours," she said as she put down the paper, "I'm sorry for your loss."

 

**Clothes shopping**

 

After leaving the cemetery register place, they found their way to the shopping district without much trouble, even though they did see some of Hyashi's goons looking around for Hinata, they didn't bother the two children. Naruto and Hinata started out  in the clothing section, and they did buy a lot of clothes, but they spent a larger amount of time in the toys and game section. Naruto had always wanted a tv in his apartment, but with what little money he got from the counsel to live on his own, he could never save enough to buy one. Now, however, he could and did, along with a Xbox and some video games, Hinata though it would be fun for them to have their own cellphones so they could talk to each other whenever they wanted. Naruto agreed so they pooled their money together to buy them plus the stuff that usually goes with them. They also got a pair of DS's to play agents each other whenever they didn't have anything else to do, they they noticed that they were caring around a lot of stuff and thought that it would be better to have the Konoha delivery service drop it off at Naruto's apartment until they were done shopping.

 

"Are you sure about that Naruto? What if someone seals it before we can get there?" Hinata asked.

 

"Don't worry Nata, I had called Ayame while you where in the changing room, she said she'll be there waiting for the delivery guy to show up with all of our stuff, I even gave her a list of everything thing we bought so far so she can check that nothings missing when it gets there," Naruto said with a wide grin. 

 

"Wow, Naruto, that was smart," Hinata said, "so you think we should buy anything else before we go back for the tombstone?" 

 

Naruto put a finger to his lip in though, "how about some new shoes? We got our old ones dirty last night while we were digging."

 

Hinata looked down at their feet, they had put back on their shoes after their bath but you could still see some dirt and scuff marks on them, "sure, I could use some new ones, these were starting to get small anyways."

 

"Alright, and look, that stores having a sail today," Naruto said pointing to a shoes store to his right. They headed over to the store and started looking around, they found a few pairs they liked and was about to buy them when a familiar set of squealed parsed their ears. They peeped around the corner of the ail that they were currently in, which happened to be the one on the far right, so it was out of sight of the group that was coming into the store at the are left. Sasuke Uchiha was surrounded by his usual fan girls, although today he looked especially annoyed with the girls that circled him,  _"poor guy, I don't envy him in the least, surrounded by shallow bitches all day long? No thank you,"_ thought Naruto as the squeals got closer. They ducked back into the their ail and gathered up the shoes that they were going to buy before heading over to the register, although they weren't fast enough and Sasuke spotted them as they were about to head out the door.

 

"Hay, you two, what's up?" Sasuke said walking over to them, the fan girls trailing alone behind him in a way only shallow people could.

 

"Oh nothing, just getting some new shoes, that all," Naruto said casually, "what about you, you looking for some collars to keep those puppy-dog tame?"

 

Some of the fan girls cut a look at Naruto as if he was the scum of the earth, but Sasuke chuckled, "nah, I'm looking for the pound, I don't quite like these strays, I could give you one if you're interested."

 

"No way, they might have rabies," Naruto chuckled, then looked over to Hinata, "besides, I like quite little rabbits better anyways, they don't make as much noise, you know what I mean?" This comment earned he a small growl from some of the girls in the group.

 

Sasuke nodded, "true, I like a bit of peace and quite myself, but that's hard to come by...you wanna hang out? I could use a change in company, if you don't mind."

 

"I'd love to hang with ya man, but there's something important I gotta do first," Naruto admitted, this time he got a stunned look from the girls, "maybe next time?"

 

Sasuke looked a little disappointed at this, but he nodded his head, "alright, another time," he said and took out his cellphone which caused the girls to gasp. Naruto was seriously starting to wonder if they even had _live's_ to live by the way they acted, "give me your number, I'll call you, or could text me whenever you're free."

 

Naruto didn't want the girls in Sasuke's little fan club to get a hold of his number, who knows what they could do with it, so he put down his bags took Sasuke's phone. He punched in his number into it, called his own cellphone with it and saved Sasuke's number in his phone that way. After a second, he put away his phone and turned to Hinata, "Nata, let me see you for."

 

Hinata had been watching the group of girls make face at Naruto for a while now, at the mention of her name, she turned to Naruto, "my-oh uh, sure...here," she said with a smile handing over her her new phone. She noticed that all three of them had the same cellphone model, a Galaxy note, the only way to tell the difference between the three was the covering, Sasuke's was a navy blue with three commas on the back, Naruto's was a bright orange with a red circle that swirled in the middle, and Hinnata's was lavender with a little blue bunny. She thought it was adorable in a way, they may even become good friends after this.

 

"I'm putting Hinata's number in your phone too so we can hang out without the noisy mutts hanging around," Naruto said as he called Hinat's cell with Sasuke's, "that is if you don't mind."

 

Sasuke shook his head, not at all, as long as it's you two, it's fine," he said with a smile, the girls swooned.

 

"Sa-Sa-Sasuke, would you like my number to? We could hang out, just the two of us alone, it would be so-" Sakura was cut off by a sharp glare and a crisp  _no_ to answer her question. "O-oh, okay," she said in a defeated tone, suddenly she caught sight of Hinata staring tat her, "what, what are you staring at?"

 

Hinata watched get angry before turning  her eyes away, "it's not my fault that guys don't like shallow," she said.

 

"What was that?" Sakura said.

 

Naruto and Sasuke watched her, Naruto leaned over to Sasuke and whispered, "is it just me, or does her forehead get bigger when she's mad?"

 

Sasuke whispered back, "it's hard to tell, I try not to look at it for to long, even outside, that thing's brighter than the sun when it's side."

 

Naruto chuckled, "tell me about it."

 

Sakura was foaming at the mouth when then turned their full attention back on her, apparently Hinata was showing her that she wasn't afraid of her in the least, not after what she did yesterday. "Listen up little Miss Big-eyes, just because Sasuke found favor in don't mean shit, you got me?" Sakura said, Hinata wasn't really interested in what she had to say, so she turned completely away from her, Naruto was sure that she was going to hit Hinata like she did him yesterday when Sasuke grabbed her shoulder.

 

"Enough, Sakura, leave her alone," he said, he turned to Naruto again, "sorry about that, I think it's about time for to leave, I'll talk to you late."

 

"Sure thing," Naruto said as Sasuke walked away with the girls behind him, he went to pick up his buys and a pair of legs came into view, it was Sakura, who else.

 

Sakura stood in front of him staring at him with intense green eyes, "just so you know, I'll be watching you...both of you, closely." She looked over to Hinata who was still shoing that she was still very unimpressed by Sakura's display, "don't get in my way, don't think that I do't know what you're doing, I know what you're doing, and if you think for a second that I don't...then I do." She quickly turned he nose up at him and walked out the store, squealing like a pig again as she reached Sasuke.

 

Naruto had picked up his bags and was staring after Sakura, he just couldn't understand how one could be so petty, he sighed, "let's go."


	3. Growing pains

**Ch. 3 Growing Pain's**

 

Naruto and Hinata left the shopping center that they were at after they were sure that Sakura hadn't broken away from the group of fan girls to follow them. They found their way back to the cemetery place where the tombstone they had ordered was now ready for pick-up. The stone was perfect, and what was even better was tat the person that made the stone had added some color to the stone to brighten it up. In the book that they had picked out the stone from was a simple gray stone, but when the woman who had taken their order handed the stone to them, the stone was the color of red clay, which made the rose at the bottom stand out even more. The wings of the angel sitting on top the stone seemed even more defined than they were when they laid eyes on it in its picture. It wasn't hard to tell how pleased they work with the work that went into it, Naruto paid for the stone while Hinata thanked the woman, they left soon after that to head back into the woods. It took both of them to carry the stone because it was heavier than they first thought it to be, although that didn't stop them, they made it back to Aiko's grave a little after sun down. They made quick work of setting up the stone in front of the rock, then they set put out the flowers they had bought earlier while they were shopping around, a small food offering was placed over the patch of dirt in front of the tombstone with some in-cents. They prayed in front of the grave for a while before leaving to head back into town for dinner and a bath.

 

Naruto texted Sasuke their location to see if he could meet up with them to hang out for a while, neither him or Hinata was ready to go home again just yet. Sasuke had seemed to have managed to get away from his crazy fan girls for the first time in forever because when they saw him, he was all by himself, which made Naruto and Hinata thankful for that. They thought about what their next move would be, it was clear that Naruto and Hinata had been out and about all day doing various shopping here and there, that meant they were starting to get a little sweaty, while Sasuke had been followed like a hawk all day long, so he was still a little stressed. With that in mind, the hot springs was the only thing that had made sense to them. After their much needed time in the springs, Saskue decided that helping Naruto set up his Xbox had to be their next step of action. They headed over to Naruto's apartment, he had already called Ayame to confirm that all of their packages had arrived their safely, while he was at it, he put down a order for take-out reman to be delivered to his apartment as well. 

 

Upon walking up to his apartment, Naruto thought he felt someone watching him, however, that feeling soon went away when saw some of the Hyuga's standing guard around hid building. He looked to Sasuke and then Hinata, they didn't say anything as they walked up to them, seeing as how they didn't/weren't making any moves to corner them and steal Hinata away, they passed them. On entering the Naruto's apartment, they were meet with a sizable number of bags and box's waiting to be opened.

 

"Whoa, what you guys do, buy the whole mall?" Saskue asked as he took up some of the bags to bring them further into the apartment.

 

"No, not really, we just got what we needed," Hinata said as she went through her bags.

 

"Okay, so where's the tv?" Saskue asked looking at the box's on the table.

 

"It's right here, the Xbox is next to it," Naruto smiled, "lets hurry up and set it up, I've been dying to play some games on it since I saw it."

 

The tv Naruto bought was a flat screen, it was as big as he was, it came with a stand that gave just enough space between the screen and the floor for the Xbox to be placed in-between. By the time they go the tv connected to the power outlet and was figuring out the Xbox situation, Ayame had arrived with their take out. She was surprised that Sasuke Uchiha was there with them, she saw that they were having some trouble setting up some of the programming's features by for themselves, she decided to help them out before leaving. 

 

"I still can't believe that you've saved up enough money to buy all this stuff just by working at that ramen shop all day," Sasuke said as he slurped down his bowl of ramen.

 

"Nah, it was nothing, besides I don't work at Ichiraku's all the time you know," said Naruto around his own mouth full of noodles. "Sometimes, very early in the morning, I would walk over to the parts of the village that have a lot of the elderly that were living alone there, I help them out by doing the things that needs doing. Nothing big, just small things like pulling weeds, sweeping the floors, washing dishes, taking out the trash, and even walking the dog, if that's what they want and ask me to do, then that's what I do. They don't give me a lot of money for it, but that doesn't matter because I would have still done it and more, if they let that is," he finished his bowl, "whenever I go over to help them, I notice some thing."

 

"What's that, Naruto?" Hinata asked

 

Naruto grinned at her, "I notice that they don't really hate me like the other people in the village does, I think it's might be because they're old and know it can't be helped, or because I'm doing nice things for them, but I can't tell for sure."

 

At that moment, Sasuke and Hinata felt like they had taken a gimps inside of the blond's world, they knew he had it rough, but they didn't know how rough he had it. To be able to still smile at them the way he did, it amazed them. From that point on, Sasuke and Hinata looked at him in awe at his strength, knowing that he would only get stronger.

* * *

* * *

* * *

 

 

**3 1/2 years later**

 

Its been over three nears since Naruto, Hinata, and Sasuke became friends. They would hang out all the time after, before, and even during school hours, that is if Sasuke can brake away from his annoying fan girls long enough to just say hello to the other two. Let along breath a sigh of re-leaf. Naruto had moved back into his apartment and hadn't been attacked there since, he was sure that that wouldn't last forever so he secretly set traps just in case. He never wanted to go through that kind of experience ever again in his life, never ever. Every day before school, Naruto runs over to Aiko's grave to say hello, he just couldn't seem to start his day without doing so. He would go directly to the grave and spend a few minute there just talking and smiling at the tombstone, he would sometimes stay to watch the sun rise on the weekends before he had to go to work.

 

Since he was going to the academy and helping out the elderly in the village, his time spent at Ichiraku's was cut shorter than usual. On a regular day naruto's day began as followed: Wake up early in the morning, preferably a little before sun rise, to head over to Ichiraku's to help open up the shop which only takes an hour. Next he was off to visit the older generation that lived in the village to help with choirs around the house or with the shopping, that took around three to four hours, give or take a hour or two if there is someone there that really needed his help. By this point, Sasuke and Hinata would have joined him to lighten the work loud. After a about another hour or so of this, they would take a small brake before going off to train in a empty spot for a few more hours until their stomachs let them know that they were running on empy. Then it's off to Ichiraku's ramen for lunch before finding more people to help out, usual some of the other shops in the area would call on them for help, nothing much just some sweeping and taking out the trash, the small stuff that they're too busy to do. After that, it's back to training, with a little studying thrown into the mix, because honestly, who would want a dumb ninja fighting on the battlefield? They would spend their time practicing jutsu's and their own fighting styles on each other to see how the other moved when either attacking or defending. When the day was done, Naruto and Saskue would have said goodbye to Hinata, she was still being watched after carefully from the shadows by her father's men because she had staid out late with a boy three years before. This left Sasuke and Naruto going back to his apartment with a butt laud of snakes and the whole night to play video games, or watch movies. Naruto liked action movies the best, while Sasuke scary movies to be thrilling, especially if it meant that a certan blond would jump into his lap for protection, or fall asleep before they got to the ending. Yes, Sasuke liked it, no... he loved it! And he was starting to like Naruto more and more, but not in a friendly or brotherly way, no not at all.

 

Sasuke wasn't sure when he started to fall for the blond, but he was ans has, and boy did he fall hard. Every time he was along with the blond haired boy, he made sure to do all the things he knew the blond would like. For example, Naruto liked it when Sasuke let him pick the movie, even though the blond did oh so love his action movie, romance movies was a close second, other than ramen, his favorite thing to eat was sweet dumplings, orange soda made him smile, while grape soda made him feel giddy. These small queries had given Sasuke in-sight into Naruto's seemingly unpredictable emotions, and new after all these years of gathering his courage, Sasuke was finally ready to tell the blond how he really felt about him.  He had to do it right, right time, right place, right words, everything had to go smoothly, and he knew just how to make it happen to. 

* * *

* * *

* * *

 

Sasuka had just finished setting up a small picnicker for them in a small clearing that over looked a small lake. It was almost sun set and Sasuke already sent his text to naruto telling to meet him at this very spot, Naruto had shot back a text to him saying that he would be there in fifteen minutes after a quick shower. Now Sasuke was waiting patiently for the blond to show, feeling a ting of nerves rise up in him, he remembered what Hinata had told him was the best thin to do in the this type of situation,  _"Breath"_. That sinple word was stuck in his head now, like a mantra, he chanted it again and again  until he felt his self finally calm down. 

 

"Hay Sasuke, what's up," Naruto's voice came up from behind Sasuke, said man turn to the blond, face neutral, "what's all this for?"

 

Sasuke got up from where he was had been sitting on the blanket, "I thought that I... well, I thought we could stay out here tonight." He said feeling his nerves rise again, "we don't have to spend the whole night her, just a little, just you and me, you know?"

 

Naruto looked at his friend, he could feel that something was different about him then, the way he talked, the way he couldn't even look in the eyes, or hold his gaze for long. It was unsettling, to say the least, it was weird at best, "Sasuke, are you feeling alright? You seem... different... somehow, are you sick?"

 

Sasuke shook his head and slapped himself mentally, _"get a grip, Sasuke! It's Naruto, for kami's sake! It's just Naruto, kind-hearted, sweet, Naruto, you can talk to him, can't you? You're good friends, after all, right?"_ He took in a deep breath, letting it out slowly, he looked at the blond with calm eyes again,"don't worry about me, Naruto, let's eat."

 

Naruto was still worried for his friend but sat down on end of the blanket, Sasuke taking a seat two feet away in his previous spot, "I've got some sweet dumplings in here if you want some." Said the raven haired boy, indicating the large basket that he had brought with him, "I've also got orange soda in here too," he fished out the caned soda for the other to see, he held it out to him nervously.

 

Naruto took the offered drink, noting that it was still cold, just the way he liked it. He saw how Sasuke took out a plate and started to pile on some sweet dumplings and some rise balls onto it, then handed it over to him, Naruto put down the soda and took the plate, these were all things he liked, and Sasuke knew that. However, Naruto was the one who hadn't figured what Sasuke's motives were, if he had any at all. They both ate their dumplings in silence, neither of them speaking a word, Sasuke kept throwing glances over to Naruto only to avert his eyes whenever the blond boy tried to hold his gaze for more than a second at a time, Naruto sighed as he put down his finished plate. "Okay Sasuke, there it clearly something on your mind, now can you just tell me what it is already? I'm worried about you, and I don't want my friends to be hurting, as long as I can help it, I will do what I can, do please, talk to me."

 

Sasuke smiled at Naurto for the first time that evening, "okay, um..." he put down his own plate and looked down at his hands for a minute, "well, you see, there's something that I've been meaning to tell you for a long time now. I've been going over it again and again in my head and it never seemed to come out right at all whenever I try to say it out loud, so...maybe now I can finally get it off my chest."

 

Naruto smiled that usual bright smiled that was all his own and shinned brighter than the sun itself. He aimed it at Sasuke, who seemed to draw strength from it, "sure thing Sasuke, I'll do whatever I can to help you out if you need help, all you have to go is ask, I do't bite!"

 

"I love you...Naruto"

* * *

* * *

* * *

 

 

**1/2 a year later**

 

Hinata, Naruto, and Sasuke are now twelve years old, Naruto and Hinata are still very much friends, however, Sasuke was a different story. After he told Naruto that he loved him, Naruto was accepted his love. Yet at the same time, he wasn't in love, or ready to be in a relationship with Sasuke. It hurt Sasuke deeply because he was rejected, but still he didn't hold it against him, so now they were more like... semi-friends? Anyways, they still hang out together, the three of them, although not as much as before. Hinata developed a small crush on Naruto, but after getting to know Sasuke as much as she did, she kinda fell for him too but she knew that he only had eyes for Naruto so she was torn between the two. This made them feel awkward around each other, they still met up once in a while to study and the like, but what they once had was now slowly fading away. But enough about that, Iruka sensei has some news for the class, in just one more day they'll all be tested to see who graduates from the academy! Everyone was excited about it, everyone but Naruto. It's not that he doesn't want to graduate from the academy, he does, and it's not like he can't make a good shadow clone for the final test, he could do that all too well thanks to the help of Hinata and Sasuke's training. They had spent hours training alone in the woods, and then together at the school and training grounds, so Naruto got plenty of advice about chakra control, but that wasn't the problem. The thing that bothered Naruto the most about the graduation was the villagers, what would they think? how would they react to him becoming a shinobi? A real NINJA! He knew that they wouldn't like it very much, and again, what if he got attacked by the same people from his pasted because of it? No, Naruto was too worried about that to focus on the graduation, he vowed that he would never allow anyone to do those things to him ever again, with that in mind, there was only one thing left to do.

 

"Hay, Naruto, how did you do on your test, I keep hearing rumors from people that said you failed?" Sasuke said while walking over to Naruto after class on graduation day. Naruto looked up at him, he was wearing his leaf headband proudly on his forehead as he came closer to the blond on the swing in front of the school, most of the parents had taken their kids home to celebrate the accomplishment they had made, while Naruto sat alone and watched them go. 

 

Naruto sighed, he knew that Sasuke would pass the test with high marks as usual, it was expected of him, but not of the blond. If he had become a genin, then the people that he liked to help out around the village wouldn't ask for him to come around anymore, they would hate and despise him again like they did before. He didn't want that, "hey were right, those rumors, I mean," said the blond in a lonesome voice, "I did fail the exam... I-I don't wanna become a genin."

 

"What!" Sasuke looked at the blond in disbelief, "how, why...why would you do that? After all this time, I thought you wanted to become a ninja and go on missions with Hinata and me, why? ..Why, after all this time, the work you put in, why would you give it up now?"

 

Naruto faced him with a hard stare, "because everything will go back to the way it was."

 

Sasuke blinked at him, "the way things were? You mean before I confessed to you, is that what you mean?"

 

Naruto shook his golden locks, "that's not it, before that, before the academy... WHEN i WAS ALONE!"

 

"But you're not alone, not anymore, you've got friends now, Naruto!" Sasuke said feeling a little hurt, "or don't you think of us as friends anymore?"

 

Naruto was quite for a long time, "I do... it ju-"

 

"Just what? Do you think that we'd leave you? Abandoned you on the streets like your parents?" Asked Sasuke angrily.

 

"That's not it either," Naruto shook his head.

 

"Then what? Speak up, make me understand why you would throw away this," Sasuke pointed to his head band, "...this, why would you not want to fight for it?"

 

Naruto thought long and hard about that question for a equally long time, he didn't know why, was he so afraid of the village that he didn't want to protect it? What was the point of going to school if he wasn't going to use what he learned there in the real world, by this point he had tears in his eyes, "I don't know."

 

"Oh yeah? well I do, it's because you really are weak..." Naruto flinched at his words, "you're weak and you're a loser, you can stay here and do what you want, I've got a village to save."

 

Sasuke walked away from the swing, leaving Naruto there to think things through in his own head, he wasn't weak. In fact, he was strong, very strong, he just didn't know how strong yet.  Deep down in side, he really did want to become a ninja, he really did, but the village.... Naruto got off the swing and started wondering around town for a while until he got tired and ended up sitting on the liege of a building that over looked most of the busy streets.The sun was going down, it would be dark soon, he looked down at the streets watching his classmates walk about with their new head bands, they were so happy. Naruto wanted to know what that happiness felt like, at least once in his life, he wanted to be happy and he wanted to be loved, but if the latter was possible, then he would settle for just happy. He looked up at the stone faces that watched over the village at all times, their bold faces staring of in different directions, he loved to look up at them. He knew that they were strong, they had to be to rule the village for as long as they did, they were loved by all the villagers, respected by everyone, they... suddenly a light went off in his head,  _"that's it!"_ He thought,  _"the Hokage's were loved by everyone, they protected the village and everyone loved them for it, they were imporant to everyone!_ _"_ He got excited as he thought this, but his smile soon fell,  _"oh right, I bet none of them were a monster, and if I..."_  he sighed letting go of his thoughts, _"_ _it probably just a pip dream any ways."_   Suddenly he became aware that he was no longer alone, he looked up to see Mizuki sensei standing next to him, "sensei?" 

 

Mizuki gave him a smile, "Naruto, I heard that you failed the graduation exam," he said sitting next to the blond.

 

Naruto nodded sadly, "yeah, I did."

 

"Do you want to talk about it?" Mizuki asked as he put a hand on the boys shoulder, Naruto inched away before the hand could touch him.

 

"Sorry, I don't like people touching me, sensei, I didn't mean to be rude," Naruto said.

 

Mizuki nodded, "it's fine, so tell me, what's on your mind?"

 

"Well I was thinking, I would like to take the test gain so I can become a shinobi, but..." Naruto sighed heavily, "i guess there's no way to really do that right now, is there, sensei?"

 

Mizuki nodded, Naruto's shoulders slumped, he knew it, "hay, Naruto, how would you like to help me out a little?" Naruto looked up at the teacher, "and I'll tell you what, if you do a good job, I'll ask around about letting you take the exam again, how about that?"

 

Naruto's eyes brightened, "you would really do that for me?"

 

Mizuki nodded, "sure, all you need to do is pick up a scroll for me, sound good?"

 

 

To be continued....

 

 


	4. when ties are discovered as lies

**Ch. 4 When ties are discovered as lies**

 

 

Naruto is a hero, not just because he saved the village from the nine-tales fox demon, Kuubi, no. It's not just that, he's a hero because he saved secret scroll of sealing from being given to the enemy, even though he was the one that took it in the first place, but he didn't know. Okay let me back up a little...

 

Okay, so here was Mizuki sensei sitting next to Naruto telling him that he could still become a genin, even though he had failed the test, and there fore, did not get a leaf head band. Naruto, unbeknownst to anyone else, actually failed the test on purpose, yes that's right, on purpose! Why did he do that? Well was because he didn't want the villagers to hate him more than they already did, he was already bending over backwards to get some of the people in the village to somewhat like him. However, he know that they still hated him, why did they hate him? Because of Kuubi, but there was nothing that Naruto could do about that, it being already done and set in stone and all. Anyways, Naruto failed his test to become a genin and he thought that was the right thing for him to do at the time but was it? He still heard some people say that it was good for him to fail the test and not become a ninja like he wanted to, but then there were some of the teachers that worked at the school that kept saying things like,  _"if he was going to fail, then why the hell did he even come to the academy in the first place, to waste our time or what?"_ And Naruto that he couldn't please anyone at all  _BECAUSE_ he had the Kuubi inside of him so then he felt like a idiot for even trying to think that he could do something to get people to like him more.

 

After the graduation Naruto was sitting alone, feeling like an outcast as usual, Sasuke came up to him and asked what happen. Naruto told him he failed on purpose, but not because he wanted the people in the village to like him more and think that he was less of a threat to them. No that little bit didn't make it out of his mouth, and Sasuke, being the good friend that he was gave the blond some harsh words. These same words were the one that helped Naruto open up his eyes and see that he should become a genin, and even better, become Hokage some day. But with his chance missed, and the time it would take to get another to retake his genin test, Naruto wasn't seeing much hope at the time. But then, ta-da! That's wen Mizuki sensei appears like some type of crooked angel to give our some of that missing hope!

 

 _"All you have to do is take the scroll of sealing and use some of the jutsu's inside it ,"_ was hat Mizuki told him.

 

So Naruto, now filled with hope, set out to unknowingly commit treason against the leaf village so he could become a Ninja. However when the news about this spread, it spread quickly. The third Hokage gathered up all the available jounin in the village so they could head out to look for Naruto. Thankfully it was Iruka sensei who found the blond boy first and was impressed that Naruto was able to master the shadow clone jutsu so quickly, when hours before he couldn't make one decent clone. However, Iruka also didn't know that Naruto could have already done the shadow clone jutsu and that he just failed the test so the villages could like him, but details, details. Anyways, Mizuki finally appeared before both of them and told them of his plan to hand over the scroll to Orochimaru, and that the Kuubi inside Naruto killed Iruka's parents.This surprised Naruto a little, although he already figured that the Kuubi would have killed a lot of people, not to mention orphaned a number of kids, that was a no brainner. Yet he felt bad for his sensei because he was left alone for so long. 

 

While Mizuki tried to take the scroll from Naruto, he ended up hurting Iruka sensei and Naruto wasn't cool with that, after all, Iruka sensei was the only teacher in the whole academy that gave two shits about Naruto in the first place. Without being paid extra at that. So then Naruto summoned a bunch of shadow clones to whoop Mizuki's ass and tie him up so that he could be taken away to pay for his crimes. That left Iruka and Naruto in the woods to have a sappy but happy moment, with Iruka giving Naruto his headband, then the two of them going off to have breakfast. And what better place to have breakfast than at Ichiraku's ramen? The old man and Ayame made them a both a big bowl of ramen with extra eggs, pork, noodles, both of them happy to see their favorite blond finally becoming a ninja. When he left the ramen shop, Naruto notice that there was a man following him around, it was someone that seemed familiar to him some how, but he didn't know where from. The man looked to be either in his twenties or thirties, with white hair, there was something in the man's eyes, something like want or lust, Naruto wasn't sure. However, to be on the safe side, he pretended not to notice the man, he walked around town for a while watching the man watch him.

 

At first the man kept his distance, thinking that Naruto hadn't noticed him, but then he started to get closer, closing the gape between them. Naruto knew that if he didn't do something soon, he was probably going to be hurt by this man and be sent back to hell -I mean the hospital- again, and we all know how that last trip went. Now, in order for Naruto to give the man the slip, he went into one of the restaurants he usually went to with Hinata, and sometimes Sasuke, it was a little candy shop that was famous for it's cotton candy and other sugar coated treats. He went inside, placed a quick order at the counter, and headed into the bathroom for a few minute, when he came back out, his order wasn't ready yet so he ran out of the shop telling the owner that he would return shortly to pick up said order. He then ran down the street to the outskirts when the buildings broke way into the forest, all the while he was followed by the man with white hair. When the man finally caught up with the young blond, he licked his lips and approached him from behind, he pulled out some wire from a small pack that he was caring at his side, he slowly walked up to Naruto without a word, a devilish smirk on his face. Suddenly he jumped on Naruto, causing the boy to scream and fight against the attacker, the man wasn't fazed as he quickly tied up the blond boy with the wire. He took out some take to cover the boys mouth and a bag to cover his head, he stood over the boy with the same smirk as he took out a kunai, he chuckled deep in his throat before he swiftly brought down the knife into the boys abdomen multiple times. The man didn't stop his violate attack until the boy was covered in blood and no longer moving. He whipped the blood of the blade laughed evilly, he turned away from the still form to run back into town screaming "THE DEOMEN IS DID! THE DEMON IS FINALLY DEAD!"

 

He caught the attention by the people and started to explain loudly and proudly how he had killed said "demon" by himself. There were some that looked chocked, some that cheered, and others who actually had a continuous felt a bone crushing guilt about hating the young blond so much for such a stupid reason. The man was joined by a group of other men that took pride in telling them that they had helped the white haired man kill the boy with the Kuubi locked up inside of him. When the third Hokage heard of this news, he was extremely disgusted by the way that these men, and some of the villagers, were acting following the blunt and straight up murder of young Naruto. He immediately put out the order to the AUBU to arrest these men and anyone else that chose to fallow them. He feared that if he let even one of these men or their followers get away, they may want to relive their villainous crimes on someone else that looked or sounded like Naruto. It took almost the whole day to get the men that were involved behind bars, the third looked onto his people with sorrow and shame in his eyes, to think that they would go so far. When a small team was sent out to retrieve Naruto's body, they found it in the woods not too far from town, however, when they went to pick it up and carry it to the funeral home, the body just  _poofed into smoke._ Surprised was first, then confusion set in before a realization settled in over them, Naruto wasn't dead, they were re-leavened ans also surprised on how re-leaved they actually were to know that the blond was still alive.

 

Meanwhile, in Naruto's apartment, the young blond sat on his bed alive and well. He had heard, and saw everything that happened in town earlier. From the man with white hair running after his clone, to the event in the forest that caused the man to run happily back into town yelling his accomplishment, even to the part where they were arrested and was set off to jail along with his followers. It disgusted Naruto to no end and couldn't believe that there was that much hate for him in the village. Naruto's plan was to go into the candy shop, make a shadow clone of himself for the man to follow, then pay for his order of candy and leave unfollowed back to his apartment. But when he heard of all that happened, he became sick, to think that there were people like that living in the village was unimaginable up until now. From that day forward he vowed that when he became Hokage, he would show everyone in the village that they were wrong to cast him out like they did. Now with that said, what Naruto didn't know was that those men that got arrested were the same people that kidnapped him when he was eight years old. These where a secret organization that not only took it upon themselves to  _brake demon children_ , but they also kidnap and and sell off kids on the black market, they were in ever Kage's bingo book as low life criminals. Now that they had been shoved off to jail, Naruto unknowingly became a hero.

 

To be continued...

 


	5. Lost memories

**Ch. 5 Lost memories**

 

Naruto was walking to the academy, he was happy that they were finally going to be assigned to teams, but yet he wasn't all that focused on it. The events that led up to the arrest of the men that happy planned and murdered his clone thinking that it was the real thing, still weighed heavily on his mine. He couldn't think straight as he walked down the street to the academy, he found himself lost in thought as he entered the classroom and found his seat. He was so unfocused that when he heard the loud commotion of Ino and Sakura fighting to get into the room first was the only thing that caught his attention. Mostly because they were so loud as they came in, everything was as normal as before so why shouldn't he act like it was? Yes, that's what he was going to do, putting on a face smile, he got up and waved over to Sakura. It's been years since they first met, he took notice that she was smart, did her work and turned it in on time, and she wasn't half bad looking at all, nut Naruto still didn't fully like her. She didn't like him at all still, but maybe that would change, who knows, they might end up on the same team together, so maybe it was time to beery the hatch.

 

Sakura looked over in Naruto's direction and ran over, a glimmer of hope in Naruto's eyes, _"maybe we can be friends after all,"_ as the pinkette got closer. "Hay, Sakura, you wa-" suddenly Sakura shoved him out of the way and began to flirt with Sasuke, who ignored her, like always. That was when an argument of who came first, and who could sit next to Sasuke began, Naruto laid on the floor like an old news paper. He was tired of being treated this way, he got up and walked out of the room,  _"let them fight of a guy that doesn't even give them the light of day, what do I care?"_ Naruto walked by Iruka who was busy reading something on a a sheet of paper, he was so busy ready, in fact, that he barely noticed Naruto until the blond had passed him and turned down a corner, out of sight. 

 

After he left the academy, he made a B line to the woods to visit Aiko's grave. He had been going there religiously for the past five years, it was the only spot that he felt he could escape to unnoticed by the spit-full villagers. As he got close to the forest, he stopped to buy some flowers, the ones he had placed on the grave would have started to die by now, Aiko deserved fresh ones, so he got him some roses because he thought they looked especially bright that day. He wondered into the forest, knowing the way by heart now, he found the child's grave and placed the flowers in front of the headstone. Since he's been there so many times before, he made sure that no one could find this spot, it was his spot, and there would be no other like it. It was a small clearing that broke away  from the edge of a cliff, just enough to sit two or three people comfortably, a large rock, and now a medium sized headstone to remember the very brief life of an impossible child. it had a nice view of the stone faces, but it was hidden from view of the Hokage tower. If you sit behind the rock that was a good six or so feet away from the edge of the cliff, you could get a clear view of most of the town, sometimes a small breeze would blow by in the summer night that made it feel like a slice of heaven. In the winter time, if you bring warm enough clothes, you can sit out looking up at the stars and see when it'll start to snow or now, of cause there's the changing of the leaves and the blooming of the flowers in between those times, which are both worth it's weight in gold. 

 

However, that didn't matter to Naruto, not really anyways. As he grew up, learned more, bits and pieces about Aiko's birth was came back to him. Not to mention a shit-ton of questions that he wanted answered, but didn't know who to ask them. He wondered why it happened, who was the father, how it happened, and why it was him giving birth at such a young age, or at all. The last he checked, he was a boy, what he learned was that normal boys don't give birth, then again, he wasn't exactly  _normal_  at all. But yet it happened, it left him feeling lonely inside when it was over, and another feeling, something like a deep longing that no one else could fill. Every time he came to Aiko's grave, he felt that feeling, it was deep and cold, and empty. It made him feel physically sick when he looked at grave where his child was berried and he began to cry like always, the sight cut deeper than any blade ever could and it hurt worse than any play he'd ever felt.

 

"Why?" He would cry, "did this have to happen? why can't I.... why does it..." the pain was to much, and his heart felt like it would always burst with sadness, but he couldn't stop crying, the pain was just too grate.

 

Finally something inside him couldn't take the questioning any more, the heart felt sadness that shook the young blond to his core, even after so much time had passed.  **"Because you were too young..."** said a voice deep with in Naruto.

 

 _"Too... too young? "_ Naruto thought, he blinked a few times, but the tears wouldn't stop coming, " _I was only eight, I guess I shouldn't have known about all of that back then, huh?_

 

 **"You were way to young to know anything back then... but the way you grew up, it was enviable that you find out at a young age, kit,"** said the voice.

 

Naruto sniffed, the tears finally slowing down but yet to stop, he listened to the voice from within himself and felt that he had heard that voice somewhere before. He had noticed that most of his childhood memories seemed to be blacked out, he remembered once when he was in his apartment, it was his eighth birthday and he had come back home from celebrating with the old man and Ayame. He got a messenger bag, a journal, and a book that he had been wanting. Something happened that night, but he couldn't really remember everything, he knew that he had a visitor come to see him that night, but who was it? He couldn't remember their face, their voice, nothing. The next thing he knew was that he was waking up in the forest for some reason, then Ayame hugging him. After that, he had some ramen before going him and writing down something in his journal, then he was taken to the hospital for a month. Even most of his stay in the hospital was one grate big blur, like his mind didn't want him to remember anything that happened to him during that time, but why? Why couldn't he remember anything from back then? Who was this voice in his head?

 

 _"Who are you?"_ Naruto asked the voice.

 

The voice didn't answer right away, but just as Naruto was about to ask again, it sighed,  **"You used to call me, ' _Ku-chan_ ' when you were little, kit... but I know you wont remember until I take away the blocks that I put on your memory. "**

 

 _"Blocks? On my memories?"_ Asked Naruto worriedly.

 

 **"Yes, it was necessary, you were growing up too fast... half the stuff that I blocked, you had already wrote down in your journal. However, whenever you would go back to read what you wrote, I did ... something... to stop you, it would have been too much work to block the memory and then have you go back and read it."** Said the voice,  **"but don't worry, I only blocked the bad things that happened, even I'm not that cold heart-ed  to make you live with such a trauma."**

 

_"Something to stop me from reading the things that I wrote in my Journal? Why, was it really that bad? Why can't I read it, they're my privet thoughts, I have a right to read what I felt back then!"_

 

 **"Yes, you do have that right, kit, but listen to me....** " The voice sighed again, this time it was longer,  **"if I didn't do what I did, then you would have had more questions. Questions that, when answered, might bring just as much pain, if not more, than events that caused your questions. Do you under stand what I'm say, kit? You're not ready for that kind of pain yet."**

 

_"So what you're saying, is that I'm weak?"_

 

**"Not weak, just unready."**

 

Naruto stood, he looked down at Aiko's grave, he sadness replaced with rage,  _"well I'm ready now.... tell me everything."_

 

The voice knew that he was beat, there was no stopping it now, the blond wasn't going to listen to his reasoning any longer, so he said,  **"very well then, have it your way. Although.... don't blame before all the sorrow that hid from you, it was a blessing in of itself, but now that you feel that you're ready to hear the truth.... let me tell you this. First, my name is Karuma, some people call me Kuubi.... and I am the nine-tail fox spirit that almost destroyed this retched village."**

* * *

* * *

* * *

 

 

The Kuubi told him to go back to his apartment, there he will find the journal that he got on his eighth birthday, and inside it would be the truth. All the memories that were hidden away from him after everything that happened. Naruto ran back to his apartment as fast as he could and found his journal in it's hiding place. He flipped to the first page and began to read it as Kuubi took away the block of that memory so he could remember every detail. When he was done he closed the book and sat on the floor for a long while, he couldn't move or speak. Thinking about everything that had happened to him when he was so young, it was hard to take, knowing that the Kuubi had hid this from him... we was starting to think that it was for the best. Knowing all that he knew now, he couldn't bring himself to trust anyone again, ever.


	6. Misplaced trust

**Ch. 6 Misplaced trust**

 

Naruto was sitting on his bed hugging his knees to his chest, he had been there for most of the day after reading what he had written down in his journal. He was disgusted by everything that he had remembered, all the memory of his past was filled with so much hate from his fellow villagers. Hate that was all directed at him. what had he done to deserve their torturer for so many years? It hurt him to think that no one was there for him when he needed them the most, even when Hinata and Sasuke became his so-called friends. he couldn't trust them, not after what he remembered.

 

_Flashback_

 

_Naruto had gotten a text from Sasuke to meet him at by the forest for lunch, he figured that the raven had set up a picnic for the three of them. However, when he had gotten to the spot that was mentioned in Sasuke's text, he didn't see Hinata there, 'she must be coming later' he thought and walked over to Sasuke. The raven greeted him as usual, but Naruto noticed that he was acting differently today, he wanted to ask what was wrong when the other boy started talking. He kept on stuttering and he wouldn't look at Naruto directly. It wasn't until the blond had asked about his behavior that the other boy ad finally said what was on his mind._

 

_"I love you, Naruto," said Sasuke with pink cheeks and a shy smile._

 

_Naruto blinked, he had been munching on a rice ball and had to wash it down with some orange soda when he started to chock on it, confused, the blond stared at the raven in disbelief. "You... you love me, Sasuke?" He asked, the raven nodded, Naruto blinked again as he continued to stare at the other boy. A long moment of silence passed between them as they stared each other down, Naruto scratched the back of his head and looked away from Sasuke's waiting eyes, "ah umm, wow thanks and all for, umm, y'know, but... well you see, um..." He looked back at Sasuke then, he had to be straight with his friend, tell him the truth, "I'm sorry, but I just see you in that way, y'know? You're more like a brother to me than anything else, Sasuke, and I just don't wanna ruin that...."  Sasuke looked crushed by what the blond said to him, he didn't want it to be this way between them, not at all. Naruto sighed, "look Sasuke, I"m probably not the best person for you to, y'know, fall in love with right now... and besides, wouldn't your parents want you to marry a girl when you grow up to continue the Uchiha name, or whatever?" The blond closed his eyes in thought for a moment," mmm... the last time I checked, I'm not a girl, I'm a boy, there's noting that I can do to change that," he opened his eyes to look at the Sasuke, "so... I'm really sorry, but I can't return your feelings, but maybe we co-"_

 

_"No..." said Sasuke, he shook his head as he looked down at the ground between them, "we can't, I can't..." he looked up at the blond with angry tears in his eyes. He got to his feet with his hands balled up into a fist, "we can never be friends ever again! Can't you see that? Or are you just blind?"_

 

_"Sasuke... I-I'm sorry, but I just see you that way, y'kno-" Naruto was interrupted again._

 

_"No!..." Sasuke's hands were shaking with his rage, "you don't get it, I am Sasuke Uchiha of the Uchiha clan, you are Naruto Uzumaki, you have no clan! I'm trying to give you a clan, some place to belong to, but you say no!? How foolish can you be?"_

 

_Naruto got to his feet then, "Sasuke, I-" Sasuke turned his back to the blond then, cutting off what he had to say._

 

_"I don't care how you feel right now, you will change you mind sooner or later, and when that day comes... you will be mine, no matter what," the raven then walked away without looking back._

 

_End Flashback_

 

After that day, Sasuke and Naruto didn't speak to each other ever again, until the graduation that is. When he saw Sasuke walk over to him, something deep down told him that the raven didn't really care if he had passed or failed, if he had failed, it wold have been the perfect time for the raven to strike. Naruto hadn't been sure if Sasuke had meant what he said to him while the blond was sitting on the swing watching the graduates celebrate with their friends and families. But after he left the school, there was a conversation tat he over heard that made it clear what Sasuke's true feelings were.

 

_Flashback_

 

_Naruto was wondering the streets just thinking about the words that Sasuke had said to him earlier that evening. He wasn't sure of where he was going yet, but he just felt like walking, when suddenly he head Sasuke talking to someone around the corner. He had been walking so blindly that when he heard Sasuke's voice, he had to look up and see where it was coming from, he was standing behind the candy shop. The blond decided to take a peek around the corner and found the raven haired boy talking to two people, from past experience, he knew that the man on the left of Sasuke was his dad, his brother, Itachi, on the right. They seemed to be talking about something privet, Naruto felt bad for listening in, he was just about to slip away when he heard his name come out of Sasuke's dad's mouth._

 

_"You really asked that Naruto boy to marry into our clan that time, didn't you, Sasuke?" Was what his dad said, Sasuke nodded, his dad sighed._

 

_"Well... did he accept?" Asked Itachi._

 

_"No, he said he didn't see me in that way back then, then he went on about how he was a boy and not a girl," Sasuke answered._

 

_"I see," Itachi said folding his arms in front of him._

 

_"Clearly this boy doesn't know a whole lot about our clan, if he did, he would know that that wouldn't have been a big deal." Said Sasuke's dad, "well in any case, I must ask you again, are you sure you want that demon for a wife? There are a good number of women in the village who would do... certainly better than..."_

 

_"No, father, I don't think so, yes there are many women, but none of them hold the Kyuubi within them, with that kind of power, an even stronger Uchiha will be born with powers may even surpass the power that Madara was said to have." Said Itachi in a logical tone, he looked at his younger brother then, "however, if the boy doesn't agree to marry into the clan, the chances are that some other clan with eventually come to this same conclusion and want one of their heirs to marry the boy and use their own jutsu impregnate him themselves."_

 

_"Itachi's right, we can't let the other clans find out what we're planing, alright Sasuke, you know what to do, yes?" Asked the dad._

_Sasuke nodded, "don't worry, I won't let him off that easy."_

 

_"Good... Now, Itachi and I will get things ready so that whenever you're ready, we'll begin."_

 

_After hearing the conversion between the three Uchiha's, Naruto ran away from his hiding spot without hearing the end of the conversation. He ran to the first place that he could think of, which led him right to the Hyuuga compound, Hinata was sitting outside of the gates drawing. She looked up as he got near, he told her what had happened and she listen like a good friend. By the time he was done, he was in tears, to think that he was only viewed as a demon and a means of power had hurt him deeply. Hinata hugged him and suggested they go for a walk, Naruto agreed and let her lead the way. After an hour of walking, they reached the park, stopping by a small secluded spot by some trees that were out of view from the kids playing in the park. They sat there for a while, enjoying each other's company when Hinata spoke up._

 

_"You know, Naruto, when we all grow up, we'll fall in love with people and get married, even start a family of our own." This got Naruto's attention, he looked at her as she spoke, she blushed a little and hugged her knees to he chest and continued,"there's no telling who, when or where that'll be, it could be someone we've met recently... or someone we've known our whole lives... but whoever it is, I just know they'll love us with all their heart."_

 

_"Hinata... mm yeah, I guess you're right, but how would we know? I mean unless you've got some kind of new jutsu that can find the people we'll spend the rest of our lives with, I'll like to hear about it some time," Naruto joked._

 

_"Yes, maybe there is, and it's already been cast, but..."_

 

_"Huh? You think so, then how would we... Hinata?"_ _At this point, Hinata was leaning closely to Naruto with her eyes closed, it freaked him out and he backed away from her quickly, "H-Hi-Hinata! Wha-wha-what do you think you're doing?"_

 

_Hinata stopped what she was doing and blushed even brighter, "s-s-sorry Naruto, I-I don't kn-know what came o-over me, b-but even so..." suddenly a look of determination came into her eyes. "I-I love you, Naru-chan! I've loved you for a while now, I don't really know when it started, but... but I really love, and-"_

 

_"Stop!" Said Naruto, he was no longer looking at Hinata, he just couldn't look into her eyes anymore, "you too, huh? What do you think this is, a game or something? You guys wanna see who can get to me first to start doing who knows what to me?! Well I've had it, I can't do this anymore.... until you guys are able to come to your senses, I don't want to see you, or Sasuke like this ever again, later." He got up and ran away from Hinata as fast as he could, he really wanted to be alone now, he wondered around town a little longer until he ended up on the balcony looking out at the stone faces._

 

_End Flashback._

 

This all happened in one day, the same day that he failed the graduation exam, he found out both of his friends feels for him. After hearing what Sasuke had said, then saw what Hinata was trying to do, he just couldn't bring himself to trust them very much, even when Mizuki sensei told him that he was going to help make him a genin, he too was lying to him. Then to see someone kill him in cold blood in the forest had really taken it's told, it was only a matter of time before he broke, leaving school early today after Sakura punched him might have been the best thing to do in the long run after all. 

 

_Ping_

 

Naruto looked up at his phone, it was showing that he had gotten a new message, he looked at it and saw that he had gotten more than one. the first few was from Hinata, he text her back because he had nothing else to do, and he wasn't too mad at her anymore. He was just going to keep her at a distance for a while until he feels like might be able to trust her again fully. 

 

 **Hinata:** Naruto?

 **Hinata:** I know you're probably still mad at me for what I did the other day, and I wanted to say I'm sorry.

 **Hinata:** I saw what happened this morning with you and Miss Forehead, she never changes, don't you think so?

No, I don't think so  **:Naruto**

Her forehead is bigger now  **:Naruto**

 **Hinata:** LOL true X3 it's good to talk to you again

Yeah, so is there something you want to tell me, Hinata?  **:Naruto**

 **Hinata:** o: yes, I wanted to tell you that Iruka sensei told us what teams we were going to be on

I guess I forgot all about that when the forehead knocked me out cold this morning =p  **:Naruto**

Man I hope it doesn't leave a mark later :,c  **:Naruto**

O wait teams? Who's with who? Do you know  **:Naruto**

 **Hinata:** Yes, I've got Kiba and Shino

Ok, cool... who R they again?  **:Naruto**

 **Hinata:** You call them Bug Boy and Dog Breath, remember?

Oh yeah, them, that's cool, o what about that Pig girl, who's team is she on?  **:Naruto**

 **Hinata:** Ino's on Shikamaru and Choji's team

 **Hinata:**  Their sensei is Asuma, mine's Kurine

I don't think I know her  **:Naruto**

Do you know who's on my team? **:Naruto**

 **Hinata:** Yes but you're not gonna like it...

Really? Why, who is it?  **:Naruto**

 **Hinata:** Miss Forehead and Sasuke

OH FUCK NO! There's no way that's right!  **:Naruto**

There has to be a mistake! **:Naruto**

Who's the wize ass that put me on a team with the forehead fan girl and the secretive emo pervert anyways?! **:Naruto**

 **Hinata:** Iruka sensei was the one that told everyone the teams

 **Hinata:** but I think it's the Hokage that put the teams together in the first place.

Oh man Jiji's really got it out for me doesn't he?  **:Naruto**

Oh well, I guess I have no choice but to go to the old man and let him have a peace of my mind :<  **:Naruto**

 **Hinata:** It won't do much good if you do

 **Hinata:** I have to go now Naruto, my sensei is here

 **Hinata:** Talk to you later?

Yeah, if the emo pervert and forehead don't kill me first  **:Naruto**

 **Hinata:** You'll be fine, bye

Yeah whatever bye :<  **:Naruto**

 

Naruto put his phone away and got off his bed, he went to the bathroom for a quick shower to wash off his sadness, when he was done he came out and dressed himself in some orange pants and a white t-shirt. He dried his hair a little with a towel before passing a brush threw it before putting on a beanie, letting it hang off his head a little, then he went to put on his usual blue sandals. His stomach grumbled so he went back into his room to retrieve his wallet and left, if he was going to be stuck on a team with two people that he didn't like, there was no need to rush over to his doom. 

* * *

* * *

* * *

 

On his way to meet his team, Naruto stopped by a dongo shop, the only other sweets shop that didn't raise the prices on their stuff whenever he was there. As he was stocking up on sweets, he remembered that he had a few more unread text messages from earlier. He walked around the store for a while, when he got to the check out line, he read through the messages just to see who they were from and what they said, there where about five total. 

 

 **Sasuke:** Looks like we're gonna be on the same team, get back here now, dobe

 **Iruka:** Naruto, I heard what happened this morning from Hinata, I hope you're doing alright, please come back to class when you're feeling better

 **Sakura:** Listen here blondy bitch, just because we're on the same team together, don't think that we'll be friends because we won't. You're just gonna slow me and Sasuke-kun                down, so try not to be such a loser when you get her else I'll show you who's boss around here. You got me?

 **TenTen:** Yo Naruto, I saw you had passed the exam, I thought you had failed, or that's what I heard. Anyways, I'm having a party at my house this weekend, if you're not too                     busy, maybe you and Hinata can come?

 **Sasuke:** Our jounin is already here, we'll be outside the tea shop across from that dumb candy shop you love so much. Hurry up, you're already late.

 

Naruto rolled his eyes at both Sakura and Sasuke's messages, he replied to Iruka's message telling him that he was alright, then sent a text to TenTen to tell her that he'd clear his schedule. He wasn't going to miss TenTen's party, not at all, he really like TenTen, she was like a big sister to him. Her family even owned a few of the shops that Naruto shopped at the most: a weapons and gear shop, a candy shop, a tea shop, a small clothing store in the mall, as well as a bigger one not too far from his neighborhood, and the dongo shop he was in now. TenTen's family was the third richest family in Konoha, the Uchiha's and the Hyuuga's were tied for second, and the first richest family was the Namikage, however they haven't been seen in almost twelve years. Naruto wondered about them, who are they? What are they like? But nobody talks about them, not even a whisper, it was like the Namikage's were a bunch of ghost or something, Naruto shivered at the idea of a family of ghost living in the village.

 

Naruto paid for his large bag of dongos and other sweets and left, he checked his wallet and noted that he had just enough money to put in an order for some take out later. He ducked into a book shop to get the latest issue for some his manga and other book collections. The book store was also one of the stores that didn't raise the price on their stuff just because he was buying their stuff, the owner of the store was a good friend of TenTen's mom, so she often gave him a discount on all his favorites.

 

"It's that time of the week again, huh, Naruto?" Asked the store owner.

 

"Yep, it's the weekly book hunt," said Naruto with a bright smile, he held up his large bag of sweets, "and the monthly candy haul, I've got some strawberry flavored dongos in here for you too, like always."

 

"Oh my, you remembered! It was so busy earlier today that I almost forgot that Valentines day was coming up," said the shop owner. Naruto took out the mentioned goodies and handed them to the store owner, "thank you so much dear, you are a life saver, my daughters have been going on and on about it none stop."

 

"It's no problem, Miss Umi, I had a feeling that this was how it was going to be when I bought them." Naruto said as he put his down his bag in front of him so he could start stacking the books he wanted on the counter, there was quite a few of them this time. At home he was in the middle of reading three manga novels, two graphic manga novels, a action novel, two sy-fy novels, and a romantic drama novel that came a series up to seven books in it's collection that he had started readying the week before. Now he was getting the last two volumes of his manga novel, the last issues of the graphic manga, the third and forth book of his romantic drama series, two new books that each had their own series of books to collect. Needless to say, Naruto was going to need a really big bag to dump his sweets and books into before heading over to meet his team.

 

"You seem to have hit the jackpot today, don't you think, how do you plan on carrying all this stuff anyways dear?" asked Miss Umi as she finished scanning the last of the books.

 

"I don't know, I guess I'll have to go buy a bag or something, I can't really go home and drop everything off first, y'know?" Naruto said scratching the back of his head, "after this, I've gotta meat my new team."

 

"Team? Oh! Oh yes, that's right, that's right, I did hear that you passed... well then here, just drop you stuff in here and be on your way, you don't want to be late, do you?" Umi held up a large gray backpack for the blond to see, "and it's free of charge."

 

"Actually I'm already late, but are you sure?" Naruto asked looking at the bag.

 

"Of course I'm sure, just think of it as my way of saying thank you for always coming to my store. You know it's a rare thing to see a youngster like yourself coming in as much as you do to buy books, I wasn't too sure when you first came in here all those years ago, I almost thought you were eating the books you bought," Umi laughed whole heartedly. Naruto chuckled at the idea, Umi sighed, "but know I know better, you're just one of those quite little ones that likes to keep to himself and help others in his free time, even now, isn't that right?"

 

Naruto nodded, he accepted the bag and put all of his stuff inside it, he said good bye to Miss Umi before leaving the bookstore, he made his way slowly over to the the tea house where he met his team. Sakura was drooling over Sasuke as he ignored her, like always, there was a man with gray hair sitting next to them reading a book. On closer inspection, he saw it was that pervy book, Icha Icha or whatever, but his reading material wasn't the only thing that stuck out about him, it was that only one of his eyes were showing as the rest was covered. He was mysterious in his own way and Naruto did like a good mystery, he walked over to them staying quite as he just served them with his eyes, the first person not notice his presence was the mystery man with gray hair, he looked up at him with his one eye and they stared at each other for what felt like forever. It wasn't until Sasuke looked up did the silence ever brake, his movements was noticed by Sakura, who then got up from her spot and smacked the poor blond over the head so hard that he saw stars. 

 

"That's what you get for coming so late, Naruto!" Sakura screeched in an unlady-like way.

 

Naruto held his head and glared at the pinkette for her abuse, "yeah whatever," he looked over at the one eyed man and straightened up, "I'm Naruto, who are you."

 

"Kakashi Hatake, I'm assuming that you're the one we're been waiting for then?" The one eyed man asked, or more like stated, to the blond, who nodded once, "alright good." He got up from his spot and tapped his book lightly on Naruto's head, "we've already introduced ourselves, so tomorrow, try to get with us a little bit earlier than you did today, okay?"

 

"What's happening tomorrow?" Asked Sakura coming back from her fit of bipolar rage.

 

"We'll be meeting at the training grounds at six o'clock sharp for our first mission, try to be there on time, or don't come at all," Kakashi said as he started to walk way, "oh and don't eat breakfast."

 

"Why not?" Sakura asked 

 

"You'll see when you get there," Kakashi said over his shoulder.

* * *

* * *

* * *

 

After that little meeting, Naruto had just turned to leave when Sasuke called out his name, asking him why he was so late. Naruto told him that it was none of his business and hopped onto a building and left the raven in his dust before he could get angry with the blond. When he got home later on it was already sundown time, around this time of day it wasn't safe for anyone to be outside, especially the Kyuubi holder. However, when he got home, he got the feeling that someone was watching him, he made a note to himself to buy some currants to up over his windows and went to bed. 

 

The next day, Naruto got up and put some ninja gear into the new bag that he had gotten from Umi yesterday, he made breakfast and took a shower. When he was done, he made a note to clean up his apartment later because he had seen a roach run by him while he was making breakfast earlier, plus his dirty clothes where starting to pile up. He left the apartment after he got dressed and made himself an extra special lunch for his first mission as a genin. It was still early as hell so he was sure that even though it was early, he would still need to hurry up and get to where he was going before some late night drunk found him. He reached the training grounds right on time with the others, but their sensei was yet to man an appearance, he took the time to catch up on some sleep.

 

Hours later, Kakashi finally came and gave them the mission he had promised, it was to take a bell from him before lunch or go hungry. The three teens split up and tried their best to get a bell, but they all failed, Kakashi then told them to eat their lunches but not to give Naruto any. Why? It wasn't because he had tried to eat the other two's lunches or anything like that, it was because he kept on falling for too many obvious traps, one after the other, so he he was tied up for that. After giving these instructions, Kakashi left them alone to do as they wished. During this time, Naruto's stomach grumbled loudly, even though he had cheated and eaten breakfast when he was told not to earlier that morning, but the only breakfast he had that morning had been a one slice of toast and a cup of milk. Sasuke smirked and offered his lunch to Naruto saying that the blond needed to eat so that they could all get the bells as a team, but actually, Sasuke really just wanted the chance to feed the blond while was tied up. He didn't expect Sakura to offer up her own lunch in turn, Naruto himself was so shocked at both, but he was so hungry that he thought that just this once he would trust them and ate the offered food. Kakashi suddenly reappeared in front of them, scaring the three of them pretty good, as per his intent, and told them that they had officially passed his test and they would start their real missions the following day. Sasuke, Sakura, and Kakashi walked away from Naruto as he screamed about being still tied up, but neither of them seemed to have been paying attention to the blond as they continued walking.

 

After about a whole hour of struggling, Naruto had managed to wiggle down enough so that his head was close enough to the rope so that he could start gnawing through it. It took nearly another hour and a half of biting for him to actually get loose from the ropes hold. He noticed that Sakura and Sasuke had actually left both of their lunches behind for whatever reason when they had left, Naruto sighed, knowing that the food was already cold, but he decided to take them home with him anyways. He would just worm them up later. All the way home he had felt someone watching him, yet had marked it up to being paranoid, he ordered some take out from Ichiraku's. He told Ayame about his feeling when she delivered the food to him, she told him that if he wanted he could do some work at the shop with her and the old man for a while, since he was starting to run low on money after all the shopping he did the the day before, he accepted. He had missed working at Ichiraku's, with the way things had been going for him lately, he hadn't had the chance to go to work there very often at all, but when he got there it was just like old times, it might have even been a little bit busier than usual that day. Although that didn't bother Naruto in the least, he washed his hands, tied on an apron and got to work, taking orders and making deliveries, they worked well into the night since there had been a few small party that stopped by the shop. He did get a few dirty look s from some of the villagers that hated him enough to openly curs at him in the shop, this didn't go very for the poor idiots as both Ayame and the old man would teach those few a lession or two about manners. When this happened three times in a row, it became an official unspoken law to  _never_ ,  **ever** talk bad about Naruto in, in front of, or around Ichiraku and all those who worked there. A few more late night parties stopped by the little ramen shop to have a late night meal to solbar up before they had to face reality in the morning. By the time they finally closed down the shop for the night, it was already two in the morning, way passed the time that they usually ended things.

 

"Wow, oh man, was this day crazy or what?" Naruto asked as sat on one of the stools, he was tired and wished he didn't have to walk all the way back him at this hour.

 

"You can say that again, I'm glad I asked you for help when I did, I don't think we would have stayed afloat like we did without you," said Ayame as she finished whipping down the counter.

 

The old man took a seat next to Naruto, handing him a bottled water, "we've missed you around here, Naruto." 

 

"I've missed you guys too," smiled Naruto after drinking some water.

 

"Hay, why don't you tell us what's been going on with you, I've been dying to have one of ours like we used to," said Ayame with a smile.

 

"Okay," Naruto then began to tell them about all the good things that happen, some of the bad things, even about the old memories he had gotten back recently. They were happy that he finally became a genin and that he was talking to his friend again, and his usual hunt for books and candy were always nice. Yet those where the only good things that had happened to him, they already knew about Aiko and Sasuke, but the hospital thing caught them off guard. When they were done talking, it was almost four in the morning, the old man gave Naruto a flashlight and taser just in case, Naruto thanked them both for listening to the tail of his crappy life and went on his way. Little did he know, things were about to get much worse before they got better.

 


	7. Mission in waves

**Ch. 7 Mission in waves**

 

Naruto woke up early the next morning to a bright sunny day, he got up went to the bathroom, however, before he could even close the door he heard a crashing sound coming from the dinning/kitchen ares. He rushed out to see what it was and discovered broken glass laying all over the floor under the window, it seemed like someone wanted to say good morning to him by throwing a large rock through his window. Naruto sighed and began to clean up the glass on the floor, he would have to scrap what little money he had left to fix yet another broken window, since this hadn't been the first time this has happened to him. He threw away the broken glass and went back to the bathroom to continue what he was doing, he showered and got dressed in his usual orange, then left to start his first mission as a member of team 7. They ended up just doing random odd jobs around the village, it wasn't too hard to do all the jobs that were assigned to the whole team by him self, after all, he had been doing odd jobs since he was only five. 

 

The first few jobs were of things like gardening and find lost things around the village, that he could do alone, the next few were of finding lost pets and watching small children while their parents or guardian were out. Those jobs he could have also done by himself but some of the parents that still didn't like him didn't want to leave their kids in the hands of a "demon", so Sasuke and Sakura were needed, however, they weren't helpful at all. Sasuke kept on standing around just taking up space, while Sakura kept standing around also taking up space and watching Sasuke while he did the same. All the while leaving Naruto the only one who made a single effort to do shit, there were one or two kids that did nothing but watch tv all day long, two that kept complaining that they didn't want the blond to take care of them and they wanted Sasuke to do it instead, note that both those kids were Sasuke's fan girls. The last three kids that team 7, aka Naruto, took care of just couldn't get enough of the blond and they wanted him to take care of them longer, one of the kids, being rich and spoiled, went as far as to ask Naruto to be her permanent babysitter. Naruto, though being flatter by the offer, declined, but promised that if they ever wanted him to babysit them again, he would be happy to do so. 

 

By the time they had finished all of their missions/odd jobs, it was already getting close to dinner time and team 7 started to part ways. First it was Kakashi, who had done jack all through out the day, he left saying that he was going to turn in his report on their first day working as a team. The next to go was Sakura, she left after being turned down by Sasuke for a late night dinner date, the rejection was so cold that Naruto was sure that if he wasn't wearing a jacket at the time, he would be freezing. That left Naruto alone with Sasuke and an uncomfortable feeling hanging around in the air. After saying goodbye to the other two, it became annoyingly clear that the raven was content on following the blond, even after he had told him goodbye, twice.

 

"Could you please stop following me? I'm tired and I'd like to be alone," said Naruto after lookling back and seeing that the raven haired boy was still following him.

 

"I'm not tired," said the raven.

 

 _'Jeez, I wonder why that is...'_ Naruto thought to himself, he then turned to face the other boy, "Sasuke, I'm going home," he said sternly.

 

"Okay then go, dobe, you don't have to tell me every little thing that you're going to do before you do it," Sasuke said in his usual uncaring voice.

 

Naruto grumbled a "fine" before he turned back around and started walking again. This time when he noticed the raven following him, he picked up his pace until he broke out in a straight up run then he jumped up onto a few buildings and ran for a few blocks, he turned his head to see that Sasuke was still following him. This was starting to freak him out, why couldn't the teme just leave him alone? Suddenly his mind flashed back to the conversation that he had over heard Sasuke having between him, his brother, and his dad, how they wanted him for the power that he had inside himself. Every time he remembered that moment, he kept thinking to himself that it couldn't be true, that they were friends once and they could be that way again if they tried. However, something inside of him had disagreed and made him remember the time Sasuke had confessed his love to him not too long ago. The way Sasuke had looked when Naruto told him that he only thought of the raven as a friend and that he didn't want to ruin that must have hurt him pretty bad because after that day, Sasuke had changed, a change that made it seem like the raven could do the unthinkable to him and not even care how much it would hurt the blond. Naruto shivered at the thought and decided that he wanted to get some answer out of the raven once and for all. He made a B line for quite, privet, spot in the park to stop at, he landed not too far from a park bench and turned to see that the other had indeed followed suit.

 

Heaving a sigh from exhaustion, the blond plopped down onto the bench and glared up at the one who had caused it, "okay, talk, what's your deal?"

 

"My what?" Asked Sasuke with a raised eyebrow.

 

"Oh please, Sasuke, cut the crap, we practically grew up together remember?" Naruto leaned forward on the bench, his elbows on his knees, his eyes on the ground, "I know you're the one who's been following me around for the past month and half now, so just cut it and tell."

 

"Following you? Did you hit your head on a rock or something this morning, what are you talking about, dobe?" Sasuke folded his arms over his chest and gave Naruto a condescending look.

 

Naruto looked up at Sasuke then he wasn't lying, which didn't settle his nerves one bit, "alright then, tell me this..." he leaned back on the bench then taking in the Uchiha's posture for a moment. He was gathering his thoughts, he didn't want this to drag out so he got to the point, "why do you want me?" Sasuke tensed slightly, "or better question yet, why does your family want me to marry you, y'know?"

 

Sasuke's eyes widened for just a second before they turned dark, "want you? Want you... who in their right mind would want you, dobe? You're useless and you can't do anything right, if it wasn't for me taking the time out to train with you, you wouldn't have been have been able to get as far as you had." He pointed a thumb at himself, "hear this, dobe, your dumb dream, your likes, your dislikes, I don't care about any of them!" He pointed a finger at the hurt blond, "if anyone wants you, it would be to take you out of this world so you stop taking up space, weaklings like you have you place in this world, and you can believe me when I say, if you were a woman, you would only be used as a fuck doll."

 

"S-S-Sasuke... what's gotten into-" Naruto began getting up off the bench to look at his old friend better, but he was cut off.

Sasuke chuckled darkly as an idea popped into his head, "in fact, who's to say that you wouldn't make a good fuck doll right here, right now?... come here bitch!" Sasuke laughed as he saw the frightened look on Naruto's face, he took a step closer to the blond as Naruto took a step back, although he didn't have anywhere else to go and ended up fall back down onto the bench. "Aww what's the matter, you scared? You scared that I might be right?!"

 

"Sasuke, I... you're not-" 

 

"Shut up, you think you know me just because we played together when we were little, is that it? You don't know me!" Sasuke said taking another step forward, he took grate pleasure in seeing the blond boy flinch away, he was about to take another step forward before going all the way over to the blond in front of to pin him to the bench he sat on. Yet he didn't, or rather, he couldn't, he couldn't move at all now for some reason and it angered him, why couldn't he move? What force was there to stop him from teaching the blond a thing or two about himself? Those questions where soon answered when both boys heard a deep sigh come from behind the raven's back, Sasuke couldn't turn his head to see who it was that stopped him, but that person quickly came into view. A boy the same size as Sasuke ran over to Naruto, his slim figure and spiky ponytail told the raven that he was from the Nara clan, seeing as every male from that clan had the type of hair style. 

 

"Are you okay, Naruto? I heard everything that this jerk had to say and frankly I couldn't listen to it anymore," Shikamaru Nara said as he looked from the blond to Sasuke, who was trapped in his father's shadow possession jutsu. 

 

"I-I'm alright, Shikamaru, thanks" Naruto said still a little shaken from what he had just witnessed from his ex-best friend.

 

"Well that's a relief," Shikaku said as he released the jutsu.

 

"H-how..." Naruto started to ask but the words wouldn't come out.

 

"Hm? Oh yeah, me and the old man were finished with some training for the day, we were on our way home when we heard this guy over here cussing up a storm," Shikamaru explained as he nodded over to Sasuke.

 

The boy in question was now glaring at the young Nara with some killing intent but didn't dare make a move, even though he could very well do so now that the jutsu he was under had released him, meanwhile Shikaku chose that moment to walk over to his son and the blond boy. He tossed a lazy glance at the seething Uchiha as he went, he stopped to stand at in front of Naruto to block his view of of the other boy and began to talk to him, "you're Naruto, I've heard some things about you, but now that I've seen you up close." He took in the young blond for a moment, the spiky blond hair, the worn and slightly tattered orange jumpsuit, the worn down sandals, "uh, forgive me for staring... but does the council not give you enough money to buy new clothes?" 

 

Upon hearing this, Naruto looked down at his usual outfit, it's true that his clothes had seen better days. He had had this particular outfit for almost over seven years, granted when he had bought it it was a little too big for him, but then again he knew he would eventually grow into it, now it fit him almost perfectly. Yet at the same time, there were rips and tears all over it, he did his best to patch them up so it would look good as new, all though there is only so much that patch work can hid. Then again, he has barely bout himself any new clothes since that day in the shopping center with Hinata after Aiko... And it wasn't like the money he was getting every month supported him much when it came to anything other than instant ramen, milk, and take out, they just didn't care enough to give him what he needed. But that was why he started working odd jobs in the first place, Ichiraku was just his hobby, Naruto sighed, "not unless I can wave a wand to turn my food into clothes."

 

"Huh? You mean they honestly don't give you enough to buy yourself some new clothes every once in a while?" Asked Shikamaru.

 

Shikaku shook his head and let out another sigh, it was clear to anyone who had eyes and the ability to see through the bullshit that Naruto has had a tough time growing up. Shikaku rubbed the back of his head as he thought, he looked at his son who was talking to the young blond, he knew what Naruto was, anyone that was old enough to even remember the Kyuubi attack knew what he was. They all knew and that was why they treated the blond so poorly, he turned to the other boy that was standing with them, Sasuke, he didn't know the boy personally but thanks to the gossip mill he knew enough to know that all the girls loved him, and most guys envied him. He didn't know what the raven's relationship with the blond was outside of the academy, but from what he had witnessed earlier, he could tell that they weren't friends anymore. He turned back to his son and the blond, Shikamaru was asking Naruto what he did for food and stuff of that sort since the council wasn't willing to shell out the money for a proper meal. Shikaku had to admit that he admired Naruto's courage to keep smiling every day,  _'this kids got the strongest will power that I've ever seen,"_ he thought to himself as a small smile spread across his lips. 

 

Meanwhile, Sasuke was standing in the same spot with his arms crossed as he watched the two newcomers chat with  _his_ blond. He was just in the middle of preparing to take the blond, by force if need-be, back to his house so that he could set in motion one of the very many dirty dreams that he'd had of the blond. Once he had gotten Naruto into his room alone, there would be nothing stopping him from seeing every last inch of his pure, untouched body, except there is stopping him now, the Nara's. The Nara's were stopping him from going through with his fantasy, he grumbled something under his breath which seemed to have caught the older Nara's attention.

 

"Hm, what was that Sasuke, I did quite catch that?" Said Shikaku turning to face the raven haired boy all the way this time.

 

"I said is there something that I can help you with?" Sasuke said, not even trying to hide the anger in his tone.

 

"Oh no, there's nothing that I need help with, Sasuke, but thanks for asking," Shikaku said before turning his head to nod at his son. "It's getting late, Shikamaru, lets going..." the older man started to walk away then added, "you too Naruto, you're coming with us,"there was a surprised gasp from the blond before he followed the Nara's.

 

Sasuke gritted his teeth as the two Nara's passed by him, he suddenly grabbed Naruto by the wrist as he was close enough, "and where do you think you're going, bitch!"

 

"What the hell?" Shikamaru turned just in time to see Sasuke pulling a scared Naruto towards him, "Sasuke, I don't know what's going on with you, but you need to let go of Naruto right now."

 

"Why should I, it's not like this bitch belongs to either of you," Sasuke smirked at the young Nara. Naruto was trying in vein to free his wrist from Sasuke but the raven wouldn't let him go so easily, he let go of Naruto's wrist for a brief second so that he could pull the blond even closer to his body by his waist, "this peace of shit doesn't even have a clan to call his own!"

 

Shikamaru made a sound that sounded like a low growl, "watch your mouth, Sasuke, I'm warning you if-"

 

"What? What are you gonna do? Oh wait that's right, you can't do shit!" Sasuke said, he held Naruto with one hand and slipped the other under his orange jacket to find and squeeze a one of the blond's nipples.

 

"S-Sasuka, stop, wh-what are.." tears began to form in Naruto's eyes as the raven squeezed harder.

 

"Shut up Naruto, you'll speak when I tell you to," Sasuke yelled at the blond in his arms, "now why don't you and I-"

 

"Alright that's enough, I've seen all that I can take from you, Sasuke," Shikaku said angrily. Sasuke looked up and noticed that the older man was now standing right in front of him, he was a little more than surprised that he hadn't noticed when the older Nara had gotten this close to him. Sasuke's grip loosened from Naruto just enough so that the blond could get away from the raven and run over to Shikamaru, when Sasuke noticed that his prize was getting away, he tried to get him back, but was blocked by the older Nara. "You're not going anywhere," Shikaku said sternly, he placed his hand on Sasuke's shoulder, holding still before he could try anything, "I think it's about time you get home." Sasuke tore his eyes away from were Shikamaru was comforting Naruto, who had broken out into soft sobbing as soon as he got into Shikamaru's caring arms, to look  up at Shikaku's hard glare, "come on Sasuke, I think you've done enough for today," he said starting to walk away with Sasuke.  His had was grasping the young Uchiha's shirt tightly as he walked, he yelled over his shoulder to his son, "Shikamaru, I'm taking Sasuke to his house, make sure to bring Naruto home with you, it wouldn't be good to leave him alone after all this. Tell your mom that I'll be home shortly, okay?"

 

"Sure thing, dad," Shikamaru yelled back at his dad, he looked down at the crying blond in his arms,  _'man what a drag, why did Sasuke have to go and make him cry? I wasn't this when I got up this morning, how troublesome,'_ he thought to himself. He sighed as he held blond away from him a little so he could see his face, "hay Naruto, come on stop crying will ya?" He whipped away some of the other's tears with his thumb as the blond started to calm down, "man what was he doing to you before we even showed up?" 

 

"He... he wanted to... he wanted to-to rape me," Naruto sniffed as he whipped away the rest of his tears with his sleeves.

 

"What? He was really... I, I can't believe he would do such a thing," Shikamaru said in disbelief, the blond nodded to confirm what he had told the Nara. A shiver went down Shikamaru's spine,  _'just when I thought I was starting to wrap my head around that guy, he had to go and throw a curve ball into things,'_ he thought as he hugged Naruto close to him. He looked up at the sky, the sun was already starting to go down. "Come on Naruto, we've got to get home, my mom's gonna nag me for being late if we don't hurry," Shikamaru said softly, Naruto was quite for a moment as he finished whipping away the last of his tears then he nodded and Shikamaru led the way to his home. 

 

 

On the way over to Shikamaru's house, they bumped into Chouji and Ino, the both gave him a shocked look to see him walking with the blone. He knew why they were shocked, they were blissfully unaware of all the things that Naruto had been through, he couldn't blame them, he didn't even know all that Naruto had been through except from earlier. Shikamaru had tossed them a 'I'll-tell-you-later' look, they nodded and went back to doing their own thing, they were only halfe a block away from were Shikamaru lived when Naruto finally spoke up. "Do you believe what they say about me, that I'm a monster?" Was what Naruto had said, it kind of took Shikamaru off guard to hear the other's voice after their long moment of silence, but Shikamaru quickly recovered and replied.

 

"No, I don't think that you're a monster, you may do somethings that most kids our age would be caught dead doing unless their parents ordered them to do or something, but I don't think that makes you a monster," Shikamaru said calmly as they reached his house. It was at this moment that he realized that he had his arm around Naruto's shoulder this whole time,  _'huh, maybe that was what shocked those two so much earlier, I'll need to make sure that I clear that up later.'_  He removed his arm from around the blond to take his keys out of his pocket and open the front door, he let Naruto go in first before following to close and lock the door behind them. "Hay mom, I'm home, is it okay if my friend joins us for dinner?" He yelled into the empty hallway as he took off his shoes and walked over to the kitchen where he found his mom.

 

Naruto watched him disappear into a room down the hall before he sat down to take off his shoes as well, he put his shoes neatly next to Shikamaru's before slowly walking down the hall. He looked at the pictures on the wall as he passed by them, some were of Shikamaru as a kid to what he currently looked like, some were of his parents, and the rest were of family photos. He stopped in front of the most recent family photo, it showed Shikamaru and his parents sitting out on a blanket on the grass, his mom on the left in a bright yellow dress, his dad on the right in a black t-shirt and jeans, leaving Shikamaru in the middle of them with a white t-shirt and jeans. There was a basket and some water bottles not too far away from where the family sat smiling at the camera,  _'they must have been having a grate picnic,'_ he thought to him self with a smile,  _'I wonder what it must have been like... taking pictures like these with someone.'_ His smile faded as he remembered the day that Sasuke confessed his feelings to him, the memory left a sharp pain in his chest as he remembered. 

 

"Hay Naruto what would..." Shikamaru had come out of the kitchen having had gotten the okay to invite an extra person to the table, he was now watching Naruto as he looked at their family photos. "Uh.. Nar-" he cut himself off as he saw a single tear roll down his cheek, he walked over to the blond to look up at the picture that had the other boy so entranced, it was the picture that his mom had insisted on them taking before he had become a genin. He wasn't sure why that would cause the other to start tearing up again, then he realized that it wasn't the picture itself, it was was what it held within, a family, a happiness that the blond had never known. Suddenly he felt ashamed that he had so many family photos while Naruto had none, he clenched his hands into fist as he got closer to the other boy. He put a gentile hand on Naruto's shoulder and smiled at him, "food ready, you might wanna wipe your face first before coming to the table," he said and walked away.

 

"Oh okay," Naruto said, he didn't even realized that his eyes were watering again.

 

Naruto followed Shikamaru to the dinning room where his mom was setting the table, "mom, this is the friend that I was telling you about, Naruto this is my mom," Shikamaru stated with a small smile as he sat down.

 

"It's nice to meet you, Mrs. Nara," Naruto said politely with a bow.

 

Mrs. Nara seemed a bit taken back to see the blond boy in her dinning room, but shye soon recovered noticing how nervous the young boy was to be there himself. She nodded, "uh yes, well it's good to meet you too, Naruto," she said, "you can take a seat anywhere you like."

 

"Thank you," Naruto said taking a seat next to Shikamaru.

 

Mrs. Nara took her seat across from her son as she started taking out rice for the two boys, "by the way Shikamamru, when's your father going to be home?"

 

"He had to walk one our classmates home, he said he would be here shortly," Shikamaru said taking his bowl of rice from his mom.

* * *

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**Meanwhile at the Uchiha estate...**

 

Shikaku had just walked up to the front of Sasuke's house, the young Uchiha had been fairly silent for the most part during their walk. However as they reached his home, Sasuke demanded to  be let go, since they were already at their destination, Shikaku saw no point in holding the raven haired boy against his will beyond this point and let the boy go. Sasuke huffed as he fixed his clothes, he stuck his hands in his pocket and went inside his house without a word to the man that brought him there, Shikaku waited until the boy had closed the door behind him before he took his leave. Inside the house, Sasuke was still a little pissed that his plans from earlier had been interrupted, he was so close to getting what he wanted too, and he was used to getting what he wanted. He took off his shoes and walked through the house to get to his room, before he could get there those, he had passed by his father who had been reading a news paper in the living room. The head Uchiha looked up in time to see his son passing by and called for him to to come over, Sasuke was tired and just wanted to go straight to his room, but he didn't dare disobey his father.

 

 "Sasuke, you're coming home rather late, don't you think?" Asked hid father.

 

"I ran into some friends before I came here," Sasuke replied as he sat down.

 

"Oh?" Said his father putting down his news paper, "was the deman vessel one of these friends?"

 

"Yes, he was," Sasuke said, he saw a look in his father's eyes that told him to go on, "I was in the middle of talking to him when I was interrupted."

 

"Hmm, is that so," Sasuke's dad thought for a moment, "so I take it that you weren't able to achieve the goal then... tell me what happened."

 

Sasuke nodded, "I was about to persuade him to come home with me when the head clan leader of the Nara clan and his son intervened. The Nara heir, Shikamaru Nara, was told to take the demon vessel to their home, while Shikaku Nara, walked me home."

 

"The Nara clan, do they know of our plans?" Asked the head Uchiha with his arms folded.

 

"No, I don't think do, or at least I'm unsure," Sasuke replied.

 

The head Uchiha sighed, "well it looks like me may have to take up another rout to achieve our goals then... very well, Sasuke, you maybe excused."

 

Sasuke nodded then got up and left the room, he finally made it to his own room and he plopped down face first onto his mattress. He was tired from the earlier events of the day and wanted nothing more than to sleep the night away, he thought back to just a few hours before when he had the blond in his arms. Yes, Sasuke would admit that Naruto was cute in his own way, but he wouldn't say it out loud, although cute, Naruto wasn't really his type. He would have rather someone who wasn't looked down on by the whole village, someone with a little more class and was strong, not just physically, but mentally too, but he hadn't found that person yet. Since he hadn't found that person, he would just have to play with the blond a little more first, Sasuke chuckled to himself as he thought of ways to mess with the other boy during the next day.

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* * *

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Naruto ended up sleeping over at Shikamaru's house, he woke early, just a little before Shikamaru's alarm clock was set to go off. Shikamaru got dressed and walked with Naruto back to his apartment, when they got there, he waited why Naruto showered and changed their clothes, while he was waiting, Shikamaru was surprised at how clean Naruto's apartment was. He had expected the whole place to be a complete pig pen or something of the sort but it wasn't, instead of old ramen cups and trash laying all over the floor and every available surface area, the entire place seemed to sparkle like it was a brand new space that had never been used. The floors, table tops, windows, even the _walls_ seemed to shine with cleanliness, although there was a broken window that Shikamaru noted as he looked around the apartment checking everything.

 

Everywhere he looked there wasn't a spec of dirt to be found anywhere. He looked in the cumbered, he thought that he would see full shelves to go with clean apartment them, but the shelves just barely looked like they had been used, confussed, he went over to the fridge. Again, all he found was mostly empty shelves, there were some cartons of milk, a few water bottles, and what looked to be some leftovers from a care package, other than that the fridge didn't hold much. He walked over to some draws under the sink, one draw was filled with instant ramen, the other with candy and pastries, he sighed wondering how the blond had ever managed to live off of things like these and not be bigger than Chouji. At this point he thought he would turn his sights onto the blond's bedroom while he was still in the shower, he walked into see a equally clean bedroom with a made up bed and shinning floors.

 

There was a large bookshelf, or shelves, that took up the whole right wall and some of the wall that was across from the room's entrance, they were filled books with different titles about different things, this was the thing that seemed to both shock and amaze the young Nara the most. He walked along the shelves to read the different titles, he was so entranced by the different books that he didn't even noticed when Naruto came out of the bathroom.

 

"Pretty cool, huh?" Naruto asked pulling Shikamaru from his thoughts.

 

"Yeah, I... Naruto how did you get all these books?" Shikamaru asked, still looking at the collection of books.

 

"Odd jobs," was all that Naruto said as he walked over to his wardrobe to get some clothes to wear. Shikamaru finally noticed that Naruto hadn't dressed yet and was about to exit the room to give him some privacy when he noticed Naruto's features, he always thought that the blond seemed to be shorter than normal for the other boys their age. He had a slim waist, small shoulders, if Shikamaru didn't know any better he would have said that the blond  _boy_ looked a lot like a blond  _girl_ , mostly from behind but still. Shikamaru also noticed that his back had a scar, a big one, running down the middle of the blond's back, it zig-zagged from the base of his neck to somewhere on his low back that was covered up by the towel he was wearing. It looked like a burn mark from something really hot, he could also tell that the scare was more than a few years old, about five to six years old if Shikamaru guessed. "Hay, Shikamaru, are you listening?"

 

"Huh, what?" Shikamaru said as he came back to the present, "sorry, Naruto, I was uh... what were you saying?"

 

Naruto sighed as he looked at the Nara, he already had on his pants and underwear, he was yet to put on his shirt, "I asked if you wanted to get something to eat with me?" Shikamaru gave him a questioning look, Naruto rolled his eyes, "breakfast remember, we skipped out so you could walk me over here, y'know... are you feeling okay?"

 

Suddenly remembered everything clearer now, the Nara nodded and rubbed the back of his head, "oh yeah, what a drag, my brain must have fell asleep for a moment there, sorry about that," he said.

 

"No worries, it's cool," Naruto said turning back to his wardrobe for a shirt to wear, "since you guys saved me yesterday and gave me food last night, I thought the least I can do is buy you breakfast."

 

"No, no way, I can't let you do that, in fact I'll buy you something," Shikamaru said. Naruto turned back around to face him, ready to protest, when he added, "I saw your food supply, ramen and candy isn't real food, you know, besides I want to do this, my treat."

 

Naruto thought for a moment, he really didn't have all that much money left over, he was also save the money he had earned from missions to put in a saving account for later use. He reluctantly agreed and finished getting dressed so that they could leave, they settled on tea and dumplings for their breakfast before parting ways to meet their respective teams. 

* * *

* * *

* * *

 

 

"Alright guys," Kakashi said as he popping out of the blue, and an hour late at that.

 

"Kakashi sensai, do you know how long we've been waiting here?" Sakura asked the jounin, "it's been a whole hour since the time we were supposed to meet up here," sighed, "do you even own a watch?"

 

"Sorry, sorry, but I was just with lord third getting the details for our next mission," Kakashi said walking over to the pinkette.

 

"Hm? A mission- hay wait are we gonna be watching someone else's kid again?" Sakura asked, she made it clear the day before that she didn't get along too well with kids that aren't Sasuke.

 

"No Sakura, it's a simple C rank mission this time," Kakashi said evenly.

 

"What, a C rank, so that means what?" Naruto asked.

 

"Idiot, it means it's not as simple as what we did yesterday, but it's not as easy either," Sasuke explained.

 

"Exactly right, Sasuke," Kakashi confirmed, "we're going to be escorts today."

 

"Wow cool, so who are we escorting, a prince? A princess? Or maybe even a futile lord?!" Naruto asked excitedly.

 

"Well come with me and you'll find out," Kakashi said as he started walking away, the others stared after him for a few seconds before following him to the hokages tower where they met Tasuna the brig builder. "Our job is to make sure that he gets back home and finish building his brig safely, does everyone understand?" Kakashi asked after their meeting with Tasuna, "I'm going to give you all about an hour to gather up everything that you'll need for the mission, we'll be meeting up at the front gates, dismissed."

 

"Okay," said Naruto and Sakura, Sasuke scuffed and they all went their own ways.


	8. If that's not love, then I don't want it!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Short chapter because this is the end.  
> P.s. this is the last chapter of this story, the next story in Sad tails of a fox series will be call "Fake smiles"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There will be a part two to this story in the near future.

**Ch. 8 If that's not love, then I don't want it!**

 

It's been about three days since they started the mission in Wave country and already they've been attacked twice. The first attack came shortly after they had left the village, two ninjas from another village tried to kill Tasuna and the four ninjas that he was travailing with, they first aimed for Naruto, Sakura, and the brig builder, but they were stopped by Kakashi sensai and Sasuke. However, not before Naruto was injected with some of their poison from the enemy's ninja tools, they managed to treat the wound and get the poison out after teeing up the enemy and getting on their way.

 

The second attack came when they reached Wave country, they were attacked by a one Zabuza Momochi, one of the seven ninja swordsmen from the hidden Mist village, a.k.a Blood Mist Village as it used to be called. Zabuza took Kakashi sensai prisoner in his water prison jutsu, Sakura protected Tasuna, while Naruto and Sasuke put aside their differences and worked together to save their sensei. Naruto came up with the plan that distracted Zabuza enough that he would loose focus on his water prison jutsu and Kakashi sensei was freed, after that, it was up to the gray haired jounin to fight the ex-Mist Jounin one on one with his sharingon. Once he finally had the rouge jounin down and out, he was about to take the kill shot when suddenly he was stopped by a Anbu from the Mist village who then took the criminal away from the stunned jounin, his three charges, and their client. Now, even though they had gotten hit rid of yet another block-aide, the fight within itself left Kakashi in a bad way after using so much chakra in the fight with Zabuza,  so that meant that he had to be half dragged, half carried the rest of the way to Tasuna's house to heal.

 

Now it's the third day of their mission and they're practicing their tree climbing technique. "Jeez Naruto, can't you do this without falling off so many times? You really can't afford the head damage," Sasuke jeered at the blond after he had fallen off his tree for the fifth time that morning. 

 

  
"Oh yeah Sasuke, well you haven't exactly reached the top of the tree either, so there," Naruto huffed.

 

"Whatever," said the raven as he started to run up the tree again.

 

They went on like that for the next two and a half days, they competed and during the day and dragged themselves back to Tasuna's house to rest. On the third night, both Naruto and Sasuke made it to the top of the tree and went back to tell everyone about it. The following morning, Kakashi, Sasuke and Sakura walked with Tasuna over to the brig were construction continued on. While Naruto was left sleeping back at the house, when he got up and found his team and their client had left him, he quickly ran out of the house to catch up, but he had to turn back because he forgot his weapons pack on the room that his team was using to sleep in during their stay. It was a good thing that he forgot it though because when he got back he was just in time to save Tasuna's daughter and grandson from Zabuza's coworkers. After Naruto figured out who the two men were that attacked Tasuna's family, he rushed over to the brig to help his teammates. However, instead of rushing in in a flashy sort of way that would be expected of him, he actually waited for a few moments as he thought up a plan. During this time, he was able to observe the battle and everything that was going on, he was impressed by the fact that Mist Anbu was working with Zabuza all this time and was able to fool his sensei like he had. He watched as the fake Mist anbu imprisoned Sasuke in a glass-like house thing and was beating the Uchiha with ease, Zabuza also impressed him with his hidden mist jutsu,  _"I wouldn't mind leaning that technique when this is all over,"_ Naruto thought as he continued to watch the fight. He was almost tempted to jump in and help once when Zabuza's jutsu made it hard to see and he heard Sakura and Sasuke's screams coming from the thick mist cloud, but he stopped himself when he sensed his sensei was close to Sakura and the brig builder, and Sasuke's chakra still gave him a fighting chance. So he calmed down and began to think, there had to be someway of beating these two guys, then it came to him, Naruto smirked at his idea and put it in motion.

 

First he was going to help Sasuke, he might as well, knowing that he was the once to save the raven without him knowing would give him satisfaction for years to come. Naruto made sure to conceal his chakra, which he had leaned how to do from his many years of living in a hate-filled village, and he went up to the ice mirror thing. He kept himself hidden from Sasuke's view and watched for a while, he saw how the raven had done his Phoenix Flower Jutsu a couple of times during training and he had practiced it for a while in secret. He stepped a few feet away from the glass jutsu thing, he did the right hand signs while he jumped high into the as he took in a large breath of air and let it out in multiple fire balls  that landed on the glass-like structure, the glass semi-melted on both the in and outside, but it only took a minute before both sides were back to what they were before. Naruto thought to himself as he went back up to the glass thing, now being on the opposite side of it from before, and looked inside, he could see Sasuke standing in the center with a bunch of needles sticking out of him, he was tempted to jump in and save his supposed friend when suddenly a figure wised by in front of him and more needles appeared stabbing into Sasuke's body. Naruto thought for a moment, it seemed that their was something or someone coming out of the mirrors and landing these attacks on the raven haired boy, if that was the case Naruto had another idea that he wanted to try out, but he wasn't sure how well it would work out. Naruto ran back a few feet from the glass thing, jumped in the a air again before calling out, "shadow clone jutsu!" Five shadow clones appeared in the air around the glass structure, all six Naruto's made a few hand signs, took in a breath of air and pulled out a some throwing stars and kunai before throwing them all at the glass thing and let out his breath. Some of the shiriken multiplied and caught on fire, while some of the kunai just caught on fire, three of the Naruto clones yelled out "Shadow style! Flaming shadow clone shirkien jutsu!" At the same time the two other Naruto clones and the original yelled out, "Flaming Kunai Barrage!" All the shirkien danced around the glass structure until it hit some small portion of the glass and burst into a ragging flame all around the glass, then all the flaming kunai rained down on the center of the glass, leaving no means of escape from the structure. When all the flames died down, Sasuke and the fake Mist anbu lay in the middle of the dying fire, the fake mist anbu's mask shattered and broke from all the flames and most of the guys close was burnt to a crisp. The broken anbu mask revealed a very feminine face, while the burnt clothes revealed a boyish body, Naruto wasn't about to question the other boy's true gender, not now anyways, he looked at the boy who was behind the mask and cold tell that he had been through a all. For some reason, Naruto wanted to take the boy far away from the brig, the feeling was so stronge that he couldn't ignore it. He told three of his shadow clones to take the anbu boy far away until he got the chance to talk to him when he woke up, the clones nodded as they gently picked up the slightly cooked boy and took him away.

 

Naruto turned to look at Sasuke who was still countenance, he walked over and put two fingers to his neck but he couldn't feel a pulse. He sighed as a tear ran down his cheek, "Sakura's not gonna be happy about this," he whispered to himself and got to his feet.

 

Next up was Zabuza, by the time he caught sight of Kakashi sensei, he was in a dead lock with Zabuza. Zabuza's sword had pared Kakashi's shoulder deeply and blood was dripping out, Zabuza seemed to have sensed the blond because he ripped his sword out of Kakashi's shoulder and disappeared into the missed again. Naruto told one of his two remain clones to find Sakura and tell her what happened to Sasuke not too long ago, when he turned back to his sensei, who had yet to notice him because he hid his chakra again, was taking out a scroll from his vest. His sensei unrolled some of the scroll, spread some of his blood on it and a group of dogs appeared, before he knew anything, the dogs disappeared into the brig for a few minutes before Zabuza's surprised cry could be heard, Naruto cursed under his breath as the mist began to clear. He quickly turned the last of his shadow clones into the form of the anbu boy that he was hiding before the two split apart. The original Naruto jumped into the and back flipped before landing behind a pile of lumber, he was going to stay and watch from there, but he felt the need to do something else other than stay still so he got up and ran off the brig. Meanwhile, the clone that had turned into the anbu from before and managed to get to Zabuza a second before Kakashi got there and blocked the jounin's chidori with his body, Kakashi was taken back and the clone could feel Zabuza's split surprise before it disappeared. Kakashi took his arm out of the boy's chest as his nin-hounds went up in smoke, he asked Zabuza how he could be okay with having this child sacrifices his life  for him, Zabuza only said that the boy in Kakashi's arms was just a tool. Kakashi got even angrier at the ninaji swordsman until a spear pears the air and landed not one foot next to the two, Zabuza and Kakashi both looked over to where the weapon came from to see a hole bunch of rough looking guys staring at them. A short man with a cane and a really, really bad hair due was standing in front of the rough looking crowed, the short man told Zabuza that their contract was over, then he told the men behind him to kill Zabuza. Upon hearing these words, Zabuza looked at the crowd for a moment, then back to Kakashi, "looks like I'm unemployed, so if you don't mind lending me one of your kunai, I would like to go get my pink slip," he said. Kakashi nodded as he put down the boy that he had in his arms in the ground and closed his eyes, before walking over to Zabuza to put a one of his kunai in the swordsman's mouth, since his dogs hand clearly broken the other man's arms in several different places. Zabuza nodded his thanks to Kakashi before charging head first into the crowed at the other end of the brig and taking down quite a few before he himself found and killed the man who hired him for the brig job, Zabuza ended up stabbing his ex-boss in the chest before they both fell into the water and most likely died. 

 

Once that was over, the rest of the crowd that wasn't taken down by Zabuza in his final moments was getting angry that their boss was now dead and they woldn't get their money's worth. It was at that moment that an arrow swooshed threw the air, across the brig to land in front of the angry looking crowd, everyone on the brig turned to see Naruto standing next to Inari, Tasuna's grandson, and the rest of the people from the village behind them. Naruto took in everything on the brig in stride, Sakura was holding Sasuke in her arms since he had seemed to have just woken up a little while ago with Tasuna and one of his shadow clones behind them, Zabuza was no longer on the brig, Kakashi had moved to stand a ways away from the angry looking crowd on the other end of the brig, and the shadow clone he hand transformed to look like the anbu was now laying on the grown with a big hole in it's chest trying to cling to it's form. Naruto nodded to the shadow clone behind Sasuke and Sakura who quickly and quietly turned into smoke, the same went for the one that looked like the anbu boy. When those two disappeared, Naruto instantly knew what all happened on the brig and mentally patted himself on the back for getting the anbu boy, Haku as he was called by Zabuza, off the brig in time. "It looks like you guys could use some help!" Naruto said as he summoned a hundred shadow clones onto the brig.

 

"Well, even though we've been though a lot today, I wouldn't mind helping out a little too," said Kakashi as he summoned some shadow clones of himself onto the brig as well, the angry crowd got the hint and jumped off the brig as they ran for their worthless lives. 

* * *

* * *

* * *

 

 

"Hay Naruto, how come you were with the rest of the villagers back on the brig?" Asked Sakura as they were walking back home after the mission.

 

"Oh, hmm... well when I woke up and saw that everyone was gone, I was heading to the brig, but then Inari and his mom was attacked so I went back to save them. After that, Inari told me that he wanted to go with me to the brig to fight, and I tried to tell him that it was dangerous, but then the rest of the villagers came up to me and said the same thing so I couldn't really say no to all of them. Not like they would listen to me after Inari gave them this really cool pep-talk that inspired them all, really Sakura you should have heard it, it was so cool." Naruto said, which was a lie, by the time that he had gotten back to the village, Inari was already knocking on doors that wouldn't open up for him even when he was begging, it had taken Naruto and Inari both to convince the villagers that they should stop being so scared of Gato or whatever his name was. Luckily it all worked out well enough and the brig was finished mush faster now that the rest of the workers had come back to help. They even named the brig "the grate Naruto brig" which confused Naruto a little before Tasuna pulled him aside to talk to him about it.

 

_Flashback_

 

_"Okay kid, start talking, why didn't you tell your team about what you really did yesterday?" Tasuna asked Naruto the following day that the brig was saved._

 

_Naruto looked at him thoughtfully before grinning and rubbing the back of his head, "Jiji what are you talking about? I didn't do anything on the brig, I wasn't even really there." He said as he thought back to the previous day on the brig, he remembered telling his clone to inform Sakura in a way that she didn't know it was him and when his shadow clones disappeared, he found out that that was what happened. So how could...._

 

_Tasuna interrupted and answered Naruto's unasked question, "I saw you a little before the mist started covering the brig, you were just out of sight of the others, but I could still see that orange that you wear. Then when the mist became really thick couldn't see you any more until I heard you that is."_

 

_"Y-you heard me? Wha-what did you hear, exactly?" Naruto asked a little unsure._

 

_"It was some jutsu or something that you ninjas use, something about shadow style and flaming shiri-whatever, I don't know. But I do know that it was your voice that was saying it, and it was also you that came to get that Sakura girl yesterday too, wasn't?" Tasuna asked, "so what is it? Start talking shorty."_

 

_Naruto shifted from foot to foot, they were behind the house a little ways into the forest while everyone was getting ready fore dinner, he looked around them not sure if he should speak the truth or not, but if he didn't, he just knew that the old man wouldn't let this go. He sighed heavily before looking up at the brig builder, "I don't want them to know."_

_"Huh? You don't, why not?" Tasuna asked as he folded his arms._

 

_Naruto shrugged, "well I don't really know why myself, I just don't..."_

 

_"But if-"_

 

_"No! Look, I just can't tell them okay," Naruto cut off Tasuna, they stayed quite like that for a while, looking at each other._

 

_"Naruto, I know that you're teammate don't really see you in the kind of light that I see you in right know, but you're a hero, through and through. Now I don't know why they call you names like lose and idiot when you've shown me that your not," Naruto gave him s slightly surprised look. Tasuna chuckled, "I do have eyes kid, and my ears ain't half bad either," he answered, he sighed then got serious again, "now... would you like to tell me what's going on with you?" I know it's none of my business, but hay, it couldn't hurt to talk about it just a little right?"_

 

_Naruto nodded, "alright, you've got a point, I guess," he looked up at Tasuna then, "in my village, it happened before I was even born, I don't even know what really happened in details, but there was an attack. A grate big monster called the Kuubi attacked my village, in order to save the village, my mother and father agreed to seal the Kuubi inside of be after I was born.Two years later, they sent me with a note attached to my shirt to the Hokage's office, basically it said that they were tired of being parents at such a young age and left to explore the world and wold return for me when the time was right. But it's already been ten years since they left and they haven't sent any word that said they were coming back anytime soon, if at all, so because they left me alone, I had to stand and face the hate-filled and comments and a whole bunch of other stuff on my own." Naruto chuckled darkly,"you wouldn't believe half the stuff that I've been through since than, so acting like and idiot when even I know I'm not is the only way that I've managed to get by without causing too much trouble for myself on a regular basis. If I tell them what I did on the brig, then they'll write a report on it, if they write a report and the council reads what I've done, I don't know what will happen."_

 

_"... They could promote you to a higher level or," Tasuna tried but Naruto shook his head, "why not?"_

 

_"To promote me to a higher levee would be like accepting me into humanity, they've got to much hate fore that," Naruto explained._

 

_"I see," Said Tasuna, "so you wont even tell your sensei a little about it, huh?"_

 

_"Not if I want to feel safe when I reach home," Naruto said solemnly, "that's why I want you to keep this between you and me,"_

 

_Tasuna thought for a while, he took in a deep breath and let it out slow, "alright kid, I'll keep my mouth shut, but I still feel that you should be promoted, but what do I know? Your secrets safe with me."_

 

_Naruto nodded, "I'm counting on you, Jiji."_

 

_Flashback End_

 

Naruto sighed at the memory, Tasuna kept his word and didn't say a word to anyone, the brig was finished two days after that. There was still something else that he needed to do before he could the book on his mission complete, but for now he had to forcus on getting back home as soon as possible.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay so i know that i didn't write in some of the parings that i put in the tags, but i promise that was on accident. i just didn't feel that there was people actually reading this story so i just stopped it were it was. but now, however, i will be making a part two to breaking the demon(i would like to thank Madidi for pointing out the spelling error in the tittle for me). since i now know that there is at the very least a few people that actually read breaking the demon, i will start working on part two of breaking the demon.


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